Buying a New House, How Will A Foreign Property Impact My Stamp Duty

Macano

We are in the process of buying a new house, something we are able to do thanks to an inheritance. Unfortunately, my wife's dad passed away in France two years ago, leaving his house there two my wife and her siblings. She is now on the deeds of that home, and will be selling. Will that ownership be declared here in the UK, in which case, would my wife be considered a second-home owner, liable to higher rates of stamp duty?

SDLT_Geek

Macano said:

We are in the process of buying a new house, something we are able to do thanks to an inheritance. Unfortunately, my wife's dad passed away in France two years ago, leaving his house there two my wife and her siblings. She is now on the deeds of that home, and will be selling. Will that ownership be declared here in the UK, in which case, would my wife be considered a second-home owner, liable to higher rates of stamp duty?

Is the house you are buying in England so the relevant stamp duty will be stamp duty land tax?

Are you wanting to understand the position both if:

(a)  The sale of French property completes before the purchase of the English property is completed and

(b)  Vice versa?

It will also be relevant to know whether you have ever owned another property, and, if so, whether within the three years before the purchase of the new house, you will have sold / disposed of a property you used to live in.

Macano

Yes the new house is in England, we are simply moving home, so we won't be in posession of two properties here.
We have been here for more than ten years now, so haven't done any additional transactions within this time.
The idea is to sell the French property, but the transaction won't complete before our current purchase, mainly owing to other people also having a stake in the property.

RAS

Do you already own a home in England? Or are you currently renting? 

silvercar

If you already own your own home that you are selling, then you won't be increasing the number of homes you own, so no extra property SDLT to pay. If you are renting currently, then your purchase will increase the number of properties your wife owns, so there will be extra SDLT to pay, assuming your wife's share is worth over £40k.