First time stamp duty - buying on my own but married to partner with a house

rhi4nn0n1986

Afternoon, I am looking to buy a house in my name only and am a first time buyer. However, I’m married and my partner has a house. He is intending to move into the house I am buying and hasn’t decided if he will sell his property or not. 

Q1. Am I still eligible for the first time buyer stamp duty? The property will be in my name only. 

Q2. If not, am I also liable to the higher stamp duty if my partner keeps his house as a second home? 

There are so many conflicting articles online on whether I can get the lower stamp duty or not. 

Thanks for your help 
Rhi 

sammyjammy

The answer is yes to both answers (I think), definitely you will have to pay the second home rate of SDLT as that's considered as a married couple.

user1977

Yes to both as above - a married couple is treated as a single unit, so you (as a couple) already own a property and are buying a second home. But get a refund of the second home element if you sell the first property quickly enough.

TheJP

I thought it would be no to Q1 as they are not considered a FTB and yes to Q2 as the married couple already own a property. They would pay SDLT and the higher surcharge, they can get a refund on the higher surcharge but not the SDLT amount as the OP is not classed as a first time buyer.

@SDLT_Geek will be able to give the best clarity on the OPs question.

SDLT_Geek

rhi4nn0n1986 said:

Afternoon, I am looking to buy a house in my name only and am a first time buyer. However, I’m married and my partner has a house. He is intending to move into the house I am buying and hasn’t decided if he will sell his property or not. 

Q1. Am I still eligible for the first time buyer stamp duty? The property will be in my name only. 

Q2. If not, am I also liable to the higher stamp duty if my partner keeps his house as a second home? 

There are so many conflicting articles online on whether I can get the lower stamp duty or not. 

Thanks for your help 
Rhi 

I assume you are buying in England, so the relevant stamp duty is stamp duty land tax.

Q1.  No, first time buyers' relief does not apply where the 3% surcharge (higher rates for additional properties) applies, no see the answer to Q2.

Q2.  The higher rates of SDLT will apply if your spouse still owns a property when you complete your purchase.

allconnected

You will not be treated as a first time buyer, as the first time buyer rules explicitly exclude relief in cases where the higher rate of SDLT applies even if the actual purchaser has never owned property before. 

The higher rate will apply if the purchaser (you) will own more than one residential property after the purchase -the catch is that this test of ownership treats any property your spouse owns as if it was owned by you. This is in part to stop married couples getting round the higher rate by owning 2 properties separately instead of both jointly.

But  IF you lived in your partners current property as your main residence,  AND it is sold within 3 years of buying the new main residence which you also both live in, you may be able to reclaim the higher rate SDLT - although not the basic rate SDLT as first time buyers relief won’t apply to the purchase. 

SDLT_Geek

allconnected said:

You will not be treated as a first time buyer, as the first time buyer rules explicitly exclude relief in cases where the higher rate of SDLT applies even if the actual purchaser has never owned property before. 
Exactly.

The higher rate will apply if the purchaser (you) will own more than one residential property after the purchase -the catch is that this test of ownership treats any property your spouse owns as if it was owned by you. This is in part to stop married couples getting round the higher rate by owning 2 properties separately instead of both jointly.
It would be more accurate to say that on a purchase by one spouse alone, whether the 3% extra is due or not, is also tested as if the other spouse was also a purchaser (even though they were not).  That is a problem for OP as the spouse owns another property and (from what we are told) is not replacing his main residence.  (It would all be very different if there is another property the spouse has sold which he lived in within the last three years).

But  IF you lived in your partners current property as your main residence,  AND it is sold within 3 years of buying the new main residence which you also both live in, you may be able to reclaim the higher rate SDLT -
In fact if the spouse sells his property within three years, then what will matter for the recovery of the 3% extra is whether the spouse had lived in that property as his only or main residence within the three years leading up to OP's purchase.  It does not matter whether or not OP had lived in it.

 although not the basic rate SDLT as first time buyers relief won’t apply to the purchase. 
Agreed.

See my comments above.

kaygisiz1997

rhi4nn0n1986 said:

Afternoon, I am looking to buy a house in my name only and am a first time buyer. However, I’m married and my partner has a house. He is intending to move into the house I am buying and hasn’t decided if he will sell his property or not. 

Q1. Am I still eligible for the first time buyer stamp duty? The property will be in my name only. 

Q2. If not, am I also liable to the higher stamp duty if my partner keeps his house as a second home? 

There are so many conflicting articles online on whether I can get the lower stamp duty or not. 

Thanks for your help 
Rhi 

i had the exact same problem as you,

wife owned a property before marriage
i bought a BTL paid stamp duty
mortgage broker wrote letter to hmrc and i claimed it all back;) hopefully you will too

_Penny_Dreadful

kaygisiz1997 said:

rhi4nn0n1986 said:

Afternoon, I am looking to buy a house in my name only and am a first time buyer. However, I’m married and my partner has a house. He is intending to move into the house I am buying and hasn’t decided if he will sell his property or not. 

Q1. Am I still eligible for the first time buyer stamp duty? The property will be in my name only. 

Q2. If not, am I also liable to the higher stamp duty if my partner keeps his house as a second home? 

There are so many conflicting articles online on whether I can get the lower stamp duty or not. 

Thanks for your help 
Rhi 

i had the exact same problem as you,

wife owned a property before marriage
i bought a BTL paid stamp duty
mortgage broker wrote letter to hmrc and i claimed it all back;) hopefully you will too

I have absolutely no idea who that worked as the FTB SDLT relief only applies when the FTB purchases their main residence not an investment property.