Can we recover the stamp duty on our new house?

My husband and I considered moving out of London for a few years when we finally found the perfect country house in 2021. We wanted to buy it and were lucky not to have to sell to finance the purchase. However, we incurred a large stamp duty bill for the purchase of a second home. Can we recoup the extra rate if we sell our London flat within three years of completion? If so, can you suggest any steps we can take to expedite the sale of the London apartment?

Adam Fletcher, partner at law firm Farrer & Co, states that if you own or have an interest in residential property anywhere in the world, the purchase of additional residential property will result in a 3% property tax surcharge in England and Northern Ireland. (Higher rates apply in Scotland and Wales.) This supplement applies whether the additional property is lived in or rented.

You should be able to reclaim the extra SDLT paid on the sale of your London flat, provided it is a sale of your former principal residence. As you rightly point out, you only have three years to finalize the sale of your former principal residence to claim the refund, so you will need to act quickly.

First, name your pro team at an early stage. When selecting your legal advisors, it is crucial to ensure that they have the ability to execute the transaction quickly and the technical expertise to handle your particular property. Appointing lawyers before you have a buyer puts you in the best position to move a sale forward as quickly as possible.

Have your legal team prepare a sales package of required legal documents (including title deeds and property searches) prior to any offer. Some local authorities can take weeks to provide search results and you may need to take out indemnity insurance to cover any outstanding information, so the sooner you start with this the better.

You can help this process by gathering copies of key documents, such as warranties or building completion certificates, and providing them to your attorneys upfront. This will allow you to efficiently respond to a buyer’s inquiries and save time during the selling process.

To help find a buyer quickly, make sure your property is priced appropriately. Try to get several appraisals before you market the property to make sure the price is accurate and realistic for the market. If it hasn’t been redecorated in the last couple of years, it’s worth refreshing to ensure its presentation is in line with the asking price. Small aesthetic changes can go a long way in attracting buyers.

Finding a dynamic real estate agent can also add a huge advantage. A good agent will establish whether a potential buyer is serious, help move a deal forward, and liaise effectively with other professionals. Get recommendations from friends, family or lawyers to ensure you choose the right agent.

Once you have completed the sale of your property in London remember that you must claim the SDLT refund within 12 months of the sale being completed – you will need the unique transaction reference number from the SDLT form which you submitted when purchasing your country property in order to do this.

Why did my transfer agent refuse to act on my apartment purchase?

I got my offer accepted for a flat in London in a high-rise building and I feel like I got a good deal. However, my landlord will not act for me on this purchase. Apparently my mortgage lender’s requirements are too complicated when it comes to blocks over 11 meters or five storeys high, due to Building Safety Act 2022 rules on cladding costs. What’s so complicated about an eight-story apartment?

Martin Whitehorn, lawyer at Julie West solicitors, says that after the 2017 fire in Grenfell Tower in London, the government introduced the Safe Buildings Act 2022, so eligible tenants in England could no longer be charged to remove unsafe coatings from high-rise buildings. While this has prompted some mortgage lenders to start lending on high-rise buildings again, it has come with additional vetting for lawyers, which has deterred some people from doing this work. However, not all transfer agents reject this extra work.

When buying an apartment such as yours, a transfer agent will need to review some key documents such as the landlord’s certificate and tenant’s certificate. The landlord’s certificate informs tenants if they have the protections of the law. The tenant certificate provides sellers with proof that they are eligible for the new protections, as not all tenants in high-rise buildings are eligible.

To qualify, a tenant must either be able to prove that their high-rise apartment was their primary residence on February 14, 2022, or that they owned no more than three properties in the UK, including their high-rise apartment. height on February 14, 2022, or finally, that they bought the apartment from a person who met one of the two previous criteria.

Generally speaking, owners must pay for all fire safety defects in a skyscraper if they have built (or are related to the builder) a defective skyscraper, or if the net worth of the “group of business owners’ exceeds £2 million per building.

In some cases, landlords can pass on the costs of non-coating fire safety defects to tenants in the service charge, but only up to a capped amount based on the value of the property. You said you felt like you were getting a good deal, but it’s important to understand and consider these capped contributions.

In London, if the value of the relevant property is less than £325,000 (£175,000 outside London), your capped amount is zero. Above this value, the capped contribution is £15,000 in London (£10,000 outside London), unless the value of the property is over £1 million, in which case the capped amount is 50 £000. If the value of the property is over £2 million, the contribution is £100,000.

The law also includes a robust set of measures designed to ensure that officials finally fix the buildings they helped make unsafe and that tenants are firmly protected from the unfair repair costs they previously faced.

The reviews in this column are intended for general informational purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for professional advice. The Financial Times Ltd and the authors are not responsible for any direct or indirect results arising from any reliance placed on the answers, including any losses, and exclude all liability to the fullest extent.

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