Part purchasing £40,000 worth of second home

[Jordan244]

I will try keep this short.

A family member of mine is wanting to buy a house but has a low income therefore can not get a big mortgage. So that they can get a bigger house I would like to join the mortgage with them for under £40,000.

I already own a house so technically I would be purchasing about 33% (total house value is £120,000) of what would be my second house.

Would we be subject to the increased stamp duty surcharge of 3% on the entire value of the property?

Or does this whole "if the transaction is less than £40,000 no stamp duty must be paid" save us from that hefty fee?

Thank you

[SDLT Geek]

It sounds as if the entire purchase will be subject to the higher rates of SDLT. For a purchase where several people will have shares in the property one has to look at the overall chargeable consideration given for the property, not at the amount each puts in.

To see if the higher rates are due one has to look at the circumstances of each part owner (and sometimes spouses / civil partners) as if they were buying alone. If for any one of them the higher rates are due, then the higher rates are due for the whole transaction.

There is a lot of information about the higher rates here: https://www.zoopla.co.uk/discover/buying/q-a-new-3-stamp-duty-surcharges/