SDLT while owning an inherited property in Italy with a surviving parent

[lever]

Hello,

I wonder if someone has experience of Italian law and how it is treated in the UK. I used to live with my mother and father in a home in Italy. The home was owned by my father. When my father died, according to the Italian law, it was inherited by my mother and myself in a proportion of 50%. However, also for the Italian law, my mother (and not me) has the right to live in that home for the rest of her life. As a consequence of this, only she is liable for the taxes on the house. Mine is similar to a bare ownership. I would become liable if my mother decided to move out or if she rented out part of the house.

Now the problem comes because for the first time I am trying to buy my own home in the UK. And it is not clear to me if given the Italian legislation I am considered to have a major interest on that home. Am I a first time buyer or not? Is the house I'm buying additional property or not?

While I do understand that the Italian land registry says I own 50% of the house, I do not really have the same rights my mother have with her 50%. I have read all sort of things on the internet, but my case cannot be so rare and I wonder if there is a standard way HMRC is treating this. It is very hard to ask people a question when they are not familiar with Italian law and how this is mapped in the UK. I simply wonder if solicitors/tax advisors have come across this scenario and HMRC has a consistent way of treating it.

Thank you.

[AGoodman]

The answer I gave to a similar question was as follows - basically, if HMRC have a standard approach, they haven't shared it with anybody. You can try to retain FTB status by treating the usufruct as a settlement, which IS covered by the legislation - an approach HMRC sometimes take for other taxes:

"You haven't found an answer because the law is unclear. It doesn't mention usufructs at all.

The position you may end up in is to either:

- seek prior clearance under the non-statutory clearance system https://www.gov.uk/guidance/non-statutory-clearance-service-guidance OR
- claim FTB relief but declare in SDLT4 that you are the bare owner of a usufruct over a [country] property, which does not give you any current rights in possession and you do not consider this to be a "major interest".

If your conveyancer won't or can't give proper advice you will need to find a specialist tax adviser."