Renting while waiting to buy

sunny_day1

My family needs to relocate across the country at relatively short notice (almost immediately once lockdown ends) for work reasons. However, we've been doing quite a lot of work on our current house and due to the lockdown work has had to stop. This means that the house won't be ready to put on the market for several months. As a result, my husband and I are planning to rent somewhere while the work on the house is completed, and then put the house on the market and buy somewhere in our new town. However, this means that there is likely to be an overlap between when we complete on a new house, and when the tenancy on a rental ends. Does anyone know what the implications of this are for stamp duty etc as we will have two houses? I don't want to end up in a position where we are told that because our rental is our main home (due to catchment for children's schools) that its a 2nd property! Its going to be difficult enough paying rent and a mortgage anyway, let alone paying extra stamp duty!

Thanks all!

MovingForwards

You can claim the overpaid stamp duty on sale of your first home, provided it's within 3 years of buying your second home.