Postby someone » Wed Apr 19, 2017 12:52 pm
Are you selling the property you currently live in?
At the moment, regardless of the answer to that question, you will pay the additional SDLT due to your fiance owning another property.
If you were married AND you are selling the property you currently both live in then you would not need to pay the additional SDLT.
If you buy it alone (your fiance can own a minor interest only - less than 40K) then you would not have to pay the additional SDLT if you are selling your main home.
It is possible (although not certain) that you might be entitled to a refund of the additional SDLT when you marry if you sell the property you currently live in when you buy the new property before you are married.
If there is no mortgage on the property that you live in then it's also possible that you could give it to your fiance then he could sell it as part of the transaction. In theory that would also enable you to avoid the additional SDLT. However I'm not sure if it would still count as a disposal of his main residence if he'd only owned it for a few seconds and it might also fall foul of anti-avoidance regulations. (Also assumes that there would be no CGT charge on the gift)
It might even be possible to do the above if there is a mortgage, however that needs to be done extremely carefully as it might, itself, trigger another SDLT charge, making things worse, not better.
You should probably assume that you will have to pay the additional SDLT unless you can marry before completion. Depending on the amount of extra SDLT it might be worth seeking professional advice on the possible ways to avoid paying it but there's no guarantee that there are any ways to avoid it.