Capital Gains Tax on my only residence

Dottie64

We owned a house on a residential mortgage from 2019 until 2025 when my wife and I sold it. we had  permission from the building society to let it out for 20 months as we moved into my grandmother‘s house to help look after it. we paid income tax on the rent we received for the 20 months. The tenants moved out in October 2024 and we have recently sold the house. Will we have to pay capital gains or we will be exempt as this was our only residence . ? I would appreciate any advice as this is really worrying me. I am just about to put in the income tax return for the last few months of the tenancy and will obviously have to tell the taxman that we no longer own the house . 

Isthisforreal99

The period where you actually lived in it will be covered by Private Residence Relief. The final 9 months of ownership is also exempt. Any other periods will be potentially chargeable to CGT.

Note that any gain should be reported within 60 days.

monkey-fingers

As above.

Calculator here
https://www.ukpropertyaccountants.co.uk/calculators/private-residence-relief-calculator/

p00hsticks

monkey-fingers said:

As above.

Calculator here
https://www.ukpropertyaccountants.co.uk/calculators/private-residence-relief-calculator/

or there is a gov.uk one here
Tax when you sell property: Work out your gain - GOV.UK

saajan_12

Dottie64 said:

We owned a house on a residential mortgage from 2019 until 2025 when my wife and I sold it. we had  permission from the building society to let it out for 20 months as we moved into my grandmother‘s house to help look after it. we paid income tax on the rent we received for the 20 months. The tenants moved out in October 2024 and we have recently sold the house. Will we have to pay capital gains or we will be exempt as this was our only residence . ? I would appreciate any advice as this is really worrying me. I am just about to put in the income tax return for the last few months of the tenancy and will obviously have to tell the taxman that we no longer own the house . 

Its not your only residence if its not your residence, and if there were tenants in situ then you couldn't live there for that period. Also the mortgage type is irrelevant, what matters is the facts. 

- What month in 2019 and 2025 for the purchase and sale?
- Who lived there (if anyone) between Oct 24 and the sale date? 
- Did you make any other capital gains this tax year? 
- Whats the purchase and sale prices? 

Based on the answer to the above, we can help calculate. You would have Private Residence Relief for the majority of your ownership plus once you deduct costs and allowances, its likely a relatively small amount of CGT. 

monkey-fingers

p00hsticks said:

monkey-fingers said:

As above.

Calculator here
https://www.ukpropertyaccountants.co.uk/calculators/private-residence-relief-calculator/

or there is a gov.uk one here
Tax when you sell property: Work out your gain - GOV.UK

That's just a CGT calculator. When you get to the bit about PRR, it just shoves some documentation at you and expects you to know.

Dottie64

saajan_12
 Thank you for your reply, 
We bought the house in April 2019 and sold it On the 30th of July 2025
The tenants were there for 20 months until October 24
From October 2024, the house was empty it was up for sale
We bought the house for £187,500 and sold it for £213,000 and bought our next home. 
I don’t know if we can offset it, but we spent £3000 on a partial new roof and a new fuse box
What really worries me is that I had no idea about capital gains tax and have just discovered that you have 60 days to report it after which you are fined.

Isthisforreal99

Dottie64 said:

saajan_12
 Thank you for your reply, 
We bought the house in April 2019 and sold it On the 30th of July 2025
The tenants were there for 20 months until October 24
From October 2024, the house was empty it was up for sale
We bought the house for £187,500 and sold it for £213,000 and bought our next home. 
I don’t know if we can offset it, but we spent £3000 on a partial new roof and a new fuse box
What really worries me is that I had no idea about capital gains tax and have just discovered that you have 60 days to report it after which you are fined.

More importantly, when did you move out of the property prior to it being let?

Dottie64

We lived in the property from April 2019 until the tenant moved in February 2022

Dottie64

Apologies, The above post should read that the tenant moved in February 2023, not 2022, They were there until October 2024, so we lived at the house from April 2019 until February 2023

monkey-fingers

Sadly, this calculator won't allow me to put the £6,000 allowance in - it assumes it's an individual completing it.

https://www.propertysolvers.co.uk/homeowners-hub/tax/capital-gains-tax-calculator/