Stamp Duty In Relation to divorce

by **crazydog** on Mon Apr 18, 2011 7:12 pm

Hello all,

My son has been married for 6 years and is now going through divorce. They bought a property for 140000 and it is now in negative equity. The split is amicable. They both want her name off the deeds and the mortgage. As it is in negative equity I thought this would be simple but got this back today

Fee on Transfer of Equity £425.00
VAT @ 20% thereon £85.00

Government and other disbursements

Stamp Duty Land Tax To Be Advised
Land Registry Fee (estimated) £70.00
Office Copy Entries (per title) £8.00
Bankruptcy Search (per name) £2.00
Land Registry Search £4.00
Landlord’s Notice Fee £50.00 (estimated/if Leasehold)

Has anyone any views as I was not expecting all this especailly the possibility of stamp duty.

Regards and thanks in advance for any thoughts you may have

Bob

by **section 44** on Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:34 am

No stamp duty would be payable because the values involved are too low.

With regards to the other costs, I suspect that the necessary involvement of the mortgage lender is dictating some of this although it may be worth shopping around for a cheaper quote for the legal work (presumably you have requested a quote from whoever did the conveyancing on the original purchase?).

by **crazydog** on Tue Apr 19, 2011 3:47 pm

Many thanks for the reply 44,

I must admit i am a little relieved to know that there will be no stamp duty. I don't think it is the same solicitor. They just both wanted the same thing regarding her name off the deeds and thats it really. I take your point about shopping around as the legal costs do seem a little high for just that piece of work.

Once again many thanks

Bob

by **section 44** on Tue Apr 19, 2011 4:01 pm

Putting aside the mortgage lender's involvement, all you need to do is execute a TR1 transferring the legal title from husband & wife to husband and file it at the Land Registry to get the title register updated. Some of the things on that list appear geared towards a third party purchase and legal fees seem high for what is involved.