Changing property from 1 name to 2 names.

[buildhigh2000]

Hello,

I've asked a similar question before but our situation has changed slightly!

I'm buying a house with my fiancee for 150k cash (no mortgage). She is a first time buyer, I am not because I own a small share in my parent's house.

I understand that if my fiancee buys the house alone and we put it in her name, we won't have to pay stamp duty.

What I am not sure of is that if we later change the ownership of the property, so that it is half in my name, would we then have to pay stamp duty? Is there a minimum amount of time we would have to wait before we could do this without paying stamp duty?

Thanks very much!

[section 44]

If you planned to, and later did, transfer the property into joint names then SDLT would be payable by virtue of an anti-avoidance provision.