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Where Taxpayers and Advisers Meet

Sale of only home due to separation

Cjb888
Posts:5
Joined:Thu Feb 07, 2019 10:10 am
Sale of only home due to separation

Postby Cjb888 » Fri Jan 17, 2020 11:59 am

Hi

I would be very grateful for any advice, I tried to keep my story brief, but it looks like I failed. So I apologise in advance and thank anyone who has the patience to read it and offer me any pointers.

My wife and I are separated but still married. In August 2013, she decided that she no longer wanted to be with me, I had been made redundant, my father had just died as well, my Mum was on her own and in her 80's, so after 30 years in my own home, the most sensible solution was for me to move back to my Mums, which is where I am to this day. We bought our property in either 1983 or early 1984 , anyway we moved in on the 21st April 1984 and from memory we paid £29,995 it is the only property we ever owned.

We decided that we would do our best to settle things amicably. So, one of the outcomes of this was her continuing to live at our home rent free. Eventually my wife met someone else and wanted to move. I didn't want to sell so we looked at renting but it was too complicated, so sadly from my point of view it had to be sold.

It was on the market for over a year, we had at least two or three attempts that fell through and finally when we did find a serious buyer this protracted sale took another 8 months to settle. The solicitor said it was the longest running transaction she had on her books ( well over a year I think ) and as a consequence their fees went higher and higher. I have only just about managed to understand and justify them. Initially the property was up for sale for £280,000 but it eventually went for £252,500 a drop of £27,500 and I didn't want to sell it !

After solicitors fees I am left with £123,889.03 from my only home with some loose ends to sort out with my wife.

During my investigations into the best way forward prior to the sale, it was mentioned to me on this very helpful forum ( stupidly I cant find the emails , but it was a long while ago before the sale and I didn't have the full picture/figures back then ) that I could be liable for CGT and I thought what ........ I don't have a home anymore ! This is not a second property it was my one and only home and half of this wont buy me another !

To try and sum this all up, I didn't buy it to make a quick buck I thought it was going to be my home forever. During the period of our separation and we are still married, I have not had the use of anything and I received no rent. My wife lived in the property for all the time that we were separated, right up until the day the sale settled and she moved on the 23rd October 2019 last year.

I cannot afford anywhere else, at this point I live off a small pension and savings all processed via the PAYE system, with interest rates on savings as they are my income is under the personal allowance for this tax year. I am 61 years old and living with my mum and fair enough I have my share of the sale proceeds, but it sometimes feels like everything I worked for I lost. Just reading this back, without wishing to sound full of self pity, I have to pinch myself when I remember paying off the mortgage and thinking well at least that's that.

Maybe I should write directly to HMRC , but I thought firstly, it would be wise to see if I could get some input from here before I do that may hopefully help me decide the best way to approach it and also understand a bit more. I would be so grateful for any thoughts and advice on CGT in this situation or anything else for that matter, for which I thank you so much.

Many thanks and kind regards
Chris

AGoodman
Posts:1738
Joined:Fri May 16, 2014 3:47 pm

Re: Sale of only home due to separation

Postby AGoodman » Fri Jan 17, 2020 12:28 pm

It's fairly straightforward, but you could have some tax to pay. Principal private residence relief is only available when you or your spouse is in occupation but sadly a separated spouse does not count. It ceased to be your principal residence in 2013.

First calculate your gain. Assuming you owned it 50:50, this is half the sale price minus half the purchase price and deduct any legal/surveyors fees you incurred for either (half the fees if you shared them).

You can then deduct PPR - this will be proportional. Take the number of months you personally lived in the property and add on 18 months. Divide that total by the number of months you owned the property - the dates are the dates you exchanged contracts rather than completion. Multiply this %age by the gain to calculate the relief.

Deduct the relief from your gain.
Deduct your annual exemption of £12,000.

Multiply the resulting figure by your CGT rate. This will be 18% if you are a basic rate taxpayer, raising to 28% if any part (when added to your other income) is over the higher rate threshold.

On the back of an envelope, your tax may well be under £1,000.

maths
Posts:8507
Joined:Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:25 pm

Re: Sale of only home due to separation

Postby maths » Fri Jan 17, 2020 9:08 pm

Suspect virtually no CGT charge.

Cjb888
Posts:5
Joined:Thu Feb 07, 2019 10:10 am

Re: Sale of only home due to separation

Postby Cjb888 » Sat Jan 18, 2020 12:46 pm

Thank you both very much for taking the time to respond
Kind regards
Chris


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