Buying another property advice

Ben0491

Hello, my fiancée and I are hoping to get a bit of mortgage / house buying advice and I'm not 100% sure where to look for it so I thought this may be a good place.. 

My partner owns a flat (mortgaged) which is currently rented out and owns her house she currently lives in (mortgaged) 

I currently own my house I live in (mortgaged) 

We want to buy a house together and rent out our homes but realise we will be liable for stamp duty and the sort of properties we're looking at it'd be around £15k+! Which is ridiculous! 

What I'd like to know is it viable for me to sell my house and buy a new home (for the both of us) but only in my name therefore not treating us as one unit but as individuals. Avoiding the stamp duty.. 

Then continue to rent out the flat and then her house.. 

Then get married, and add her onto the deeds? 

Or is there any other options/is this legal? 

Thanks 

AdrianC

You own A (residence)
Your partner (unmarried) owns B (let) and C (residence)
You want to buy D together.

If you sell A and buy D alone, then there will be no +3% SDLT.
Whether you can afford to buy D on your own is another question.

If you and your partner sell A and C and buy D jointly, then there will be no +3% SDLT. B will be ignored, so long as D is a replacement for C.

@SDLT_Geek could confirm, but I suspect if you married first, you would only need to sell either A or C to cause the other to be disregarded for the +3%.

Whether you think the +3% SDLT on additional properties or not is "ridiculous" is beside the point. It's the law, and has been since George Osborne announced it in the 2015 Autumn Statement. The fact it's stayed in place across three subsequent chancellors and three general elections suggest it's not going anywhere in a hurry.

I presume you've done the sums and all of these properties are individually profitable letting businesses, even heavily leveraged.

moneysavinghero

We want to buy a house together and rent out our homes but realise we will be liable for stamp duty and the sort of properties we're looking at it'd be around £15k+! Which is ridiculous! 

Why is it ridiculous? You are looking to own 4 homes between you. Some might say that is ridiculous when there are people struggling to even buy 1 home. But nothing to stop you doing it if you want to - the price will be £15k take it or leave it. I might think that mars bar at the motorway services for £2 is ridiculous, but i don't have to buy it.

SDLT_Geek

AdrianC said:

@SDLT_Geek could confirm, but I suspect if you married first, you would only need to sell either A or C to cause the other to be disregarded for the +3%.

Being married will not improve the position here as OP and partner have each lived in their own property.  That means neither of them could rely on a sale by a spouse to come within the "replacement exception".