SDLT refund?

Gg1295

Hi all,

Was hoping there may be some stamp duty experts out there that may be able to lend some advice...

Last March, my partner and I bought a house together (property 'B'). This was deemed as an additional property as I decided to keep hold of my previous residence (property 'A') and switch it to a BTL.

Of course, having done so we incurred the additional 3% rate of stamp duty. Needless to say, it was quite a hefty transaction as the stamp duty figure was calculated based on the value of our onward purchase.

Now, a year + a bit later, we're considering a move abroad and are considering selling our main residence (property 'B').

My question is whether any kind of stamp duty refund is applicable in this scenario? 

I understood that the additional rate refund condition is for the disposal of the 'previous' main residence only (property 'A'), but I'm hoping I'm wrong!!

Thanks very much in advance

allconnected

Nope, there’s only one way for you to get a refund of the extra 3% and that’s if it was charged on the purchase of a property intended to be your main residence,  and you later dispose of a previous main residence within a certain time limit. The relief is intended to help people out where the purchase of a new main residence and sale of an old main residence overlap, but not where you simply decide to own more than one residential property.

The extra 3% ‘sticks’ - unless, of course, you sell property A instead of B, in which case you’d might meet the ‘overlap’ conditions to reclaim the extra 3% depending on the exact circumstances.