Buying ex-gf's share of my house - Stamp duty?

by **kingoflondon** on Tue Sep 22, 2009 2:22 pm

Hi,

I bought a house for £260,000 in November 2006. I bought in my name and in the name of my then girlfriend.

We split up a couple of years ago. I gave her some money under the agreement that I would take sole ownership and responsibility for the house.

However, we never got round to doing the paperwork until now.

Basically I want to transfer the mortgage and title into my name before the end of this year.

Are there any tax considerations for this?

I understand that they put the stamp duty threshold up recently to £175,000 - does this mean that as this is more than half the value of the house, that we would be exempt?

The equity on the house is probably in the region of £30k if that makes a difference.

Thanks! 8-)

by **Peter D** on Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:17 pm

SDLT is based on actual consideration so it is the actual price you have paid her to gain her share, however this can be half the mortgage, if that was in joint names, value plus what you paid so tell us more. Regards Peter

by **kingoflondon** on Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:36 pm

As far as I remember:

Bought house for £260,000 in November 2006

Put down a 5% £13,000 deposit, mortgaged the rest.

Came to agreeement for her to give me her half in 2007. Came to a barter agreement with regards to price, so didn't officially give her any money, was to forgive loans etc. Value of this would be less than £10k.

Current mortgage value I'm guessing is about £230,000 and the equity about £30k. This should be correct to the nearest £5k or so.

Any advice you could give would be massively appreciated. Let me know if any additional info required.

All mortgage and titles are still in both our names, but I'd like to change this asap - will I need to pay stamp duty do you think? Woudl be pretty unfair if I did I think. Seems like money for nothing, but there you go!