If a company approaches you saying they believe that you are due Stamp Duty reliefs, then . . .

EddyB

A little while ago I received a letter addressed to myself and my partner from a company called "Abell Morliss International Ltd" of Canary Wharf, London, in which they advised that they had become aware that I had paid x amount in Stamp Duty Land Tax while purchasing our home, and then said "We have reviewed the structure of your property and believe you may qualify for one of the various reliefs HMRC offer for Stamp Duty Land Tax".  The company's letter also states that the company provides a << "No Success, No Fee" Stamp Duty reclaim service" >>.

The message in this letter was of course tempting to believe, so I did an internet search and found a review of the same company warning as follows: "Unsolicited contact by letter in breach of GDPR claiming to be able to get a refund on SDLT. Attempted to contact the company multiple times & unable to get through. Beware & do your own research before taking on anything like this as it is clear that whilst it may be possible to get a refund - should HMRC challenge it you would have to repay the fee & Abell Morliss have not actually done proper research on this. If they had they wouldn't have wasted their time or mine contacting me!"

So I did some research and saw by way of the government's HMRC's web-page about possible reliefs on SDLT that I qualify for none of the following SDLT reliefs:

• first-time buyers
• multiple dwellings
• building companies buying an individual’s home
• employers buying an employee’s house
• local authorities making compulsory purchases
• property developers providing amenities to communities
• companies transferring property to another company
• charities buying for charitable purposes
• right to buy properties
• registered social landlords
• Crown employees
• freeport tax sites
• property investment funds, for example Property Authorised Investment Funds (PAIFs) and Co-ownership Authorised Contractual Schemes (CoACSs)

So, I can only conclude that "Abell Morliss" posts letters to people who have paid SDLT in the hope that the home-owners will request the company to investigate whether the home-owners are due reliefs, and if the company then finds that a home-owner IS due one or more reliefs then "Abell Morliss" will charge the home-owner a fee.

Home-owners can surely save themselves from having to pay "Abell Morliss" such a fee by simply examining the above list of reliefs and possibly seeking reliefs directly from HMRC!

The above list of reliefs is published on the government's webpage concerning Stamp Duty Land Tax.