stamp duty avoidance

lisab400

I would like to know if anyone can help with my stamp duty problem.

Ive just purchased a property with my partner for £127k and only just realised that even though I am a first time buyer my partner isnt. This has increased our expected fees by 1% through stamp duty as we are £2k over the threashold!

i am trying to find a way to 'avoid' these costs and not to 'evade' them.
is it possible to avoid these costs by not adding him to the deeds even though he will be on the mortgage?

any help please!
Lisa

iamana1ias

lisab400 wrote: »

I would like to know if anyone can help with my stamp duty problem.

Ive just purchased a property with my partner for £127k and only just realised that even though I am a first time buyer my partner isnt. This has increased our expected fees by 1% through stamp duty as we are £2k over the threashold!

i am trying to find a way to 'avoid' these costs and not to 'evade' them.
is it possible to avoid these costs by not adding him to the deeds even though he will be on the mortgage?

any help please!
Lisa

Nope. Do your research next time.

googler

Define 'purchased'....

Made an offer?
Had that offer accepted?
Exchanged contracts or Concluded Missives?
Completed / Concluded?

NyimaR

You're on very iffy territory if you try to do something like that I'd imagine! I would make sure you've checked this over with your solicitor.

Cannon_Fodder

your lender will not proceed unless he is on the deeds. that approach is not going to work.

if not exchanged yet, go to the buyer and drop your offer...

Bananamana

avoid = evade - sorry the revenue doesnt make the distinction. Albeit your solicitor/ conveyancer should have advised you in their completion figures.

Mortgage would need to me in your name only as well as the deeds. His contribution could then be protected by a trust deed.

geoffky

I have just bought for cash..my wife has never been on deeds before in her life..i have plenty of times..so what our solicitor done was just put my wife's name on the deeds and a few weeks later added mine....its all above board for a cash sale but not a mortgage sale..

Bananamana

geoffky wrote: »

I have just bought for cash..my wife has never been on deeds before in her life..i have plenty of times..so what our solicitor done was just put my wife's name on the deeds and a few weeks later added mine....its all above board for a cash sale but not a mortgage sale..

it is however a transfer at an undervalue...

lisab400

avoid and evade are different, im fully aware that avoiding cost is to try to get around it without breaking the law, and is above board, evading is to break the law.

my offer has been accepted and morgage aplication is just going through.
i think the best idea from these posts was to go back to the vendor and see if they will drop the price...OR suck up and pay it...just seems really unfair when one of us IS a first time buyer, thats the goverment for you!

thanks for the responses
xxx

googler

Simple then. You're bound to pay the stamp duty on the 'consideration' - i.e. what you actually PAY for the property, not on what you offered at.

Renegotiate the price before you conclude,
OR
If there's genuinely £2000 worth of fixtures and fittings, define these as such in the contract.

Mouseman

NOTE: I'm NOT condoning this.

Simplest way to evade is to put the mortgage through on a price of 124,995. Give the sellers £2000 cash. You need willing vendors. Such a low amount could probably be fabricated in a fixtures and fittings list quite easily...

It's either that or only the FTB goes on the deeds (as mentioned) but the mortgage needs to be secured using only that person's income.

Best of luck