Stamp Duty Exemption for 2nd homeowners

ILBfree1day

Point of Thread
The governments stamp duty exemption holiday could perhaps take into account the wider range of circumstances that a home owner may be facing in regards to being classed as a second home owner.

For example, when the first is not their main residence and where the co-owner of the previous home thwarts every attempt to release you from this status. There are extreme scenarios where 2nd home owners are stuck in a scenario they can do little about.

Caz3121

there is a benefit for those you have mentioned
eg buy a 2nd property for £400k previously would have cost £22k in SDLT (£125 @ 3% + £125k @ 5% + £150k @ 8%)
with the revised rates this would now be £12k (£400k @ 3%)
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/stamp-duty-land-tax-temporary-reduced-rates
in this example the benefit is £10k

foxy-stoat

Sadly what you think and the government will be 2 different things.

jon81uk

Nothing will ever meet everyones circumstances.
In this case it is helping people buying their main home. Being stuck with a joint mortgage you can't get rid of is unfortunate, but won't apply to many people overall.

moneysavinghero

It also doesn't help the poor who cant even afford one home let alone 1 and half homes.Should the government buy a house for every poor person just so they can benefit from stamp duty savings?

macman

You are still saving the same as everyone else with one home only, be it 2% or 5%.

grumiofoundation

ILBfree1day said:

moneysavinghero said:

It also doesn't help the poor who cant even afford one home let alone 1 and half homes.Should the government buy a house for every poor person just so they can benefit from stamp duty savings?

I agree, it doesn't help those who cant even afford their first home. But the government is not buying a house. The person who works and takes out the mortgage liability and pays it back with interest  buys the house but if it falls into the 2nd home category,  is penalised for matters beyond their control (for the reasons stated in the original post), whilst others are not. Why does one section of the population (who may be poor or rich) get the benefit of being exempt from Stamp Duty over others.

People buying a second home get the same benefit from this announcement as people buying their first home. 

The +3% remains. 

GixerKate

ILBfree1day said:

 Why does one section of the population (who may be poor or rich) get the benefit of being exempt from Stamp Duty over others.

this applies to all so its not one section of the population as you put it.  Yes there is still something to pay if you are buying a second home but you will be paying far less than yesterday.

[Deleted User]

This is great news 
We only pay 3% surcharge on top of (now) zero SDLT up to £500k 

SillySallySo

Densol said:

This is great news 
We only pay 3% surcharge on top of (now) zero SDLT up to £500k 

Does this mean we are worse off, because under the previous second home rates we would have paid £16,400 with a refund up to 9K after we sell our previous house ( logistics dictate moving into a new home so we can fix up this one ) within the year, total SDLT roughly £7400.

But now under the 3% flat rate we pay £9900.

Are we still able to claim this back or at least part of it if we sell our house before March 2021?
Or will people in my position not be able to claim back as before?

jon81uk

ILBfree1day said:

jon81uk said:

Nothing will ever meet everyones circumstances.
In this case it is helping people buying their main home. Being stuck with a joint mortgage you can't get rid of is unfortunate, but won't apply to many people overall.

The 2nd property would be a main home and a main residence. Simply stating the case for allowing a wider scope of consideration. Not that it will make much difference to the government's decision. Just raising it as a potential issue, of which I'm sure there are many more I haven't thought of. The cost of the stamp duty alone, much less the 2nd mortgage liability does have a huge bearing on the ability to move to more suitable housing.

If that is your main home, then you don't need the first one and can sell it.
But as you say, someone else is forcing you not to sell it, so you need legal advice to be able to force them to take you off the deeds, you haven't mentioned all the circumstances, but it sounds like you need a good divorce lawyer maybe to sort all this stuff out? 
Unfortunately your problem isn't the stamp duty on the second home, its the person not allowing you to dispose of the first home and that is a very different problem.