Stamp duty for first time buyers

JV72

Hello, I am struggling to find online what stamp duty do we have to pay if I am a first time buyer but my partner has already owned a house. Does the standard % apply in this case or are we eligible for some relief?
Thanks.

_Penny_Dreadful

JV72 said:

Hello, I am struggling to find online what stamp duty do we have to pay if I am a first time buyer but my partner has already owned a house. Does the standard % apply in this case or are we eligible for some relief?
Thanks.

Assuming you’re in England where the applicable tax is SDLT then sadly you won’t be eligible for any relief if it’s a joint purchase. 

JV72

Yes in England. Thank you

SDLT_Geek

JV72 said:

Hello, I am struggling to find online what stamp duty do we have to pay if I am a first time buyer but my partner has already owned a house. Does the standard % apply in this case or are we eligible for some relief?
Thanks.

@_Penny_Dreadful is right.  It would be helpful, as well as knowing if you are buying in England and buying jointly, to know:

The purchase price.
Whether your partner will still own their house at the date of completion of the proposed purchase.
Whether you both intend to live in the property you are buying as your only or main residence.

Bookworm105

in the context of the Government's definition of first time buyer your partner is not one (how a lender classes partner is irrelevant).
As it appears you and partner are buying together then standard rate SDLT will apply.

Only if you purchase in your sole name would you get FTB SDLT rates - although presumably that may impact how much mortgage you can get (and would have implications if you then try to make partner a co-owner at a later date)

The rule is if you have EVER owned a "major" interest in another property (in UK or overseas) you are no longer FTB, irrespective of whether you no longer own it.
See Finance Act 2003 schedule 6ZA part 3 para 6.1
Finance Act 2003 (legislation.gov.uk)

 Partner will be required to make a (legal) declaration to that effect, lying would be inadvisable! 

pjs493

Unfortunately if your partner has previously owned a property you will have to pay stamp duty if buying together. 

A couple of years ago when my husband started a new term with his mortgage for a property he previously lived in but is now rented out, we considered adding me to the mortgage to properly combine our assets on paper. The mortgage company were happy, but when we spoke to our financial advisor he suggested that we didn’t so that I could retain my first time buyer status. 

We had a plan to buy a second property to let out so that at the point he was due to retire from the Armed Forces, we’d be in a position to sell two (by then) mortgage free properties and put the proceeds together with savings to buy a forever home mortgage free. 

Unfortunately my husband died suddenly last year and following professional advice, I didn’t update the Land Registry with my details after I paid off the mortgage following Probate. I’m now selling the property in my role as executor so that I can inherit the proceeds and buy a house for me and our children without a mortgage (or potentially a very small one depending on the purchase price). 

I’ve saved myself thousands in SDLT by doing it this way. If I’d just updated the Land Registry without thinking or taking advice I would have been classed as a homeowner and would have had to pay SDLT despite only owning the place for a few months and having never properly lived there (I stayed overnight before we married and then moved into military accommodation, but I never officially moved in and at the time had been living in accommodation that came with my own job). With our original plan the second property would have been solely in my name. Then our forever home would have been joint but without a mortgage.