Selling dad's house

Matt168

A friend purchased a property for their father to live in in 2016. The friend lived in rented properties until buying their own home in 2019. At that point they had to pay the 3% SDLT surcharge on their real home, adding over £10k to the transaction. After the death of their father last year they sold the first house and obviously need to pay CGT on the gain.

Looking at HMRC guidance, I think that if they'd sold the first property within three years of buying their main home they may have been able to recover some or all of the SDLT surcharge. It doesn't look like there's anything to be done on that now.

On CGT, I don't think any Principal Private Residence relief is available as they never lived in the sold house or even intended to do so. Arguably they might try to add the extra SDLT paid on their actual home as a cost arising from the sold house, but it feels like a stretch and I suspect HMRC would give that short shrift.

I'd be grateful if anyone could point me towards anything I've overlooked on this? As far as I can see this seems like a case of no good deed going unpunished. 

sheramber

Looking at HMRC guidance, I think that if they'd sold the first property within three years of buying their main home they may have been able to recover some or all of the SDLT surcharge. It doesn't look like there's anything to be done on that now.

That refund only applies if they sold their main residence  to buy another main residence.

They did not sell their main residence, they sold the house which was never their main residence.