Partner buying me out during split. Do they owe me any of the stamp duty we originally split?

Mega_Maniac

Thanks all for the advice, it has been taken on board and I think ultimately the answer is what I already kind of knew. That perhaps I should have asked that we split the SD according to initial equity percent, but ultimately you don't get your stamp duty back and it's my responsibility. 

I appreciate the other suggestions, we do have a deed of trust which lays out how the split should go, so I don't want to retrospectively try to change that, even if I feel a bit 'hard done by' in terms of financial loss. 

The only real question I have remaining on this is how we should view known repairs needed to the house. We have known the roof needs replacing for the whole time we have had the house, and indeed secured a £6k reduction in purchase price in regards to this. We however only patched the roof in the years we have been here so we are aware of a £12k cost that is required for the house. Is it therefore fair to assume the value of the house is: 'market value - cost of roof'?

user1977

No, the market value of the house is whatever it is in its current condition.

Albermarle

Would it be obvious to someone viewing the property, that the roof needed replacing/was in a bad state?
Taking into account many potential buyers will be clueless about such matters.

If it is not obvious/not noticed, then it will depend if any buyers have a survey done and it is picked up.
A surprising number of buyers do not pay for a survey.

Mega_Maniac

Albermarle said:

Would it be obvious to someone viewing the property, that the roof needed replacing/was in a bad state?
Taking into account many potential buyers will be clueless about such matters.

If it is not obvious/not noticed, then it will depend if any buyers have a survey done and it is picked up.
A surprising number of buyers do not pay for a survey.

Thanks,

Whilst I know this to be true - the actual 'buyer' in this case is my ex-partner and she is of course well aware of the roof.

Surveys did flag the roof when we bought it which is why we negotiated a reduction (of £6k, a 50/50 split with initial seller) - I believe a house in its value range would very likely have a survey done and the roof would likely be flagged again. 

Mega_Maniac

user1977 said:

No, the market value of the house is whatever it is in its current condition.

Ok, so I mean I guess I mean't "Value of house as assessed by RICS valuer or EA minus cost of roof" 

As the "current condition" is that is has a bad roof. The only real dispute point is wether it is reasonable to bring the whole cost of the roof into this assessment, or only the cost of repairs to the current condition.

user1977

Mega_Maniac said:

user1977 said:

No, the market value of the house is whatever it is in its current condition.

Ok, so I mean I guess I mean't "Value of house as assessed by RICS valuer or EA minus cost of roof" 

No, they’ll assess its value in its actual condition. You don’t start deducting things from it.

Mega_Maniac

Is this assuming they know about the state of the roof? i.e.- you would inform an EA and/or RICS valuer of the roof condition to get an accurate valuation.

user1977

Mega_Maniac said:

Is this assuming they know about the state of the roof? i.e.- you would inform an EA and/or RICS valuer of the roof condition to get an accurate valuation.

They look at the property when they do the valuation.

Mega_Maniac

user1977 said:

Mega_Maniac said:

Is this assuming they know about the state of the roof? i.e.- you would inform an EA and/or RICS valuer of the roof condition to get an accurate valuation.

They look at the property when they do the valuation.

Obviously I am aware of that...

But an Estate Agent would 100% not 'notice' a roof. This does not mean that that is its "current condition" and thus its market value- and any actual sale would very likely result in a RICS survey and a further reduction in price, so surely this is the actual 'market value'?. So my question asking if one should remove the value of the roof from a valuation that has not taken it into account remains relevant.

If one knew that the EA or RICS valuer had taken the roof into account in their valuing of the house then that would be a different matter....

I realise that in the case of a valuation obtained from a RICS surveyor for the purposes of separation - that this valuation is the accepted figure with and that roof repairs would not then be deducted from that. 

saajan_12

Mega_Maniac said:

I appreciate the other suggestions, we do have a deed of trust which lays out how the split should go, so I don't want to retrospectively try to change that, even if I feel a bit 'hard done by' in terms of financial loss. 

Fair enough on the property value split being per the DoT. However there are other, uneven costs due to one party moving out and one remaining. Presumably the DoT was based on your shares if you both sell and hence doesn't cover this. 

You'll have additional moving costs and your own new SDLT which ex won't have, so its reasonable to split those too. 

Mega_Maniac said:

user1977 said:

No, the market value of the house is whatever it is in its current condition.

Ok, so I mean I guess I mean't "Value of house as assessed by RICS valuer or EA minus cost of roof" 

As the "current condition" is that is has a bad roof. The only real dispute point is wether it is reasonable to bring the whole cost of the roof into this assessment, or only the cost of repairs to the current condition.

I think we're into semantics.. by definition the market value is what someone will pay in the open market in the current condition. If an EA didn't spot the roof and valued it at £x, then a buyer would likely get a survey and ask for a reduction for (part of) the cost of the roof repair. RICS assessor is potentially different. Or put another way, the EA isn't really surveying much and when they give a valuation, they're really just saying "the market value of a comparable house with the level of features / defects I can see is £x". So you'd have to infer and agree that the market value of THIS house is £x - partial roof repair cost. 

I say partial because the expectation is that the roof, or anything else isn't brand new.. in time it would need some maintenance anyway. You're deducting for the difference between that and a roof needing repair immediately.