Stamp Duty if I add partner to mortgage?

superstylin

Hi,

I currently have a mortgage on a property valued at approx £220,000. I have approx £112,000 left to pay. 

My partner of 6 years has an offer on their own house which they had a buy to let mortgage on and were renting out, but are now selling.

My fixed term comes to an end in May and I'm looking to change the mortgage to a joint mortgage with partner named on it. If their house has not sold, will we incur stamp duty charges because it would be considered their 2nd home? Or does stamp duty only apply to new house purchases? 

Thanks for any help 👍

tightauldgit

There could be a SDLT liability on a transfer of equity like this but in your case the property is under the stamp duty threshold anyway. I think the value of the transfer would be considered to be half the mortgage plus whatever your partner pays you for their share of the equity so unless that's over the £250k mark I'm fairly sure you've nothing to pay.. 

sheramber

tightauldgit said:

There could be a SDLT liability on a transfer of equity like this but in your case the property is under the stamp duty threshold anyway. I think the value of the transfer would be considered to be half the mortgage plus whatever your partner pays you for their share of the equity so unless that's over the £250k mark I'm fairly sure you've nothing to pay.. 

I think the OP is referring to Stamp  Duty Land Tax as partner will still be joint owner of buy to let.

housebuyer143

If she's taking a 50% share it's likely that she will be liable to the additional stamp duty for her share. 
Can you wait until she has sold it to make the change? 

superstylin

They will be taking a 50% share. Though I'm not asking them to pay anything toward the equity, as we've lived together for over 4 years and they've paid towards bills, and we have a 3 yr old child so we live as a family. 

But yes the question relates more to them being considered a 2nd home owner or a landlord since their property is still going through the conveyancing process which has only really just begun. 

In theory I could wait until the sale completes, but I'm worried that it will fall through and take a long time and then I'll drop onto the SVR in May which will send the mortgage repayments to an amount I'm not comfortable with - especially since my partners mortgage is also about to drop onto its SVR as well.