Stamp Duty - am I a first time buyer?

chasingfreedom

This may be a silly question but I know that the term First Time Buyer means different things to different people when it comes to mortgages, government schemes etc. My husband and I have both owned property before (me 11 years ago, him about 20 years ago) but we are currently renting and hoping to buy a house in the next 12 months or so. I know there is an extension to the zero stamp duty till end of June but I'm wondering if we wait until after that has finished whether we would be consider first time buyers or not when the stamp duty fees kick back in?

Juliasmith78

Regardless of Stamp duty relief window.You are not the first time buyer if you owed property before and you both did.This would be all recorded via deeds that you owed property before.I am not hundred percent sure but they also put a note on NI.

chasingfreedom

Juliasmith78 said:

Regardless of Stamp duty relief window.You are not the first time buyer if you owed property before and you both did.This would be all recorded via deeds that you owed property before.I am not hundred percent sure but they also put a note on NI.

Thanks for your reply. I know I'm not technically a first time buyer because I owned a property before but some lenders for example would class me as a first time buyer now because i don't currently own a property. Wasn't sure if the same applied for stamp duty or not.

grumiofoundation

No you won’t be first time buyers for stamp duty purposes (because you aren’t first time buyers). 

davidmcn

For SDLT purposes, you're not a first time buyer if you've ever owned property anywhere in the world.

chasingfreedom

Thanks all