Stamp duty Equity Transfer

Ravydavygravy

I am getting divorced. I live in the marital home and my wife has agreed to sell her equity/50% share for £155k to my partner. My partner is selling her house to buy the equity and we will remortgage for £300k. The property is valued about £650k. Are we liable for Stamp Duty? Would the consideration be £155k + (£300k/2)? Many thanks for your help.

00ec25

what does your solicitor say?

normally when divorcing no SDLT is due if one spouse "sells" out to the other

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sdlt-transferring-ownership-of-land-or-property

in your case it appears you are doing 2 things, a) divorcing and b) letting the new squeeze buy into the property. The order of events should therefore dictate how much consideration new partner is paying to whom

the remortgage is irrelevant since the wife is not party to that so is not being bought out of her liability to it. The wife's stake in the property, and therefore the basis of the consideration will be 50% of the existing mortgage (as she will no longer be liable for that) + any cash being paid for her equity share in the property. That may, or may not, equate to 155k. If the property is "worth" 650k but the remortgage is 300k then it suggests there is 50k of equity adrift somewhere. Did you own in unequal shares?