First time buyer but partner is not

Hi,

I am a first time buyer but my partner bought a house three years ago so he is not. He bought the house with his brother and is now selling his half so we can buy. My question is how can we avoid stamp duty now? Is it possible to put my name on the mortgage but both our names on the deeds incase anything happens to either of us.

All advice appreciated.

Simply answer is No.

Loophole was closed last year that means both names must be on the mortgage and the deed. Both buyers must be FTB or no dice on skipping Stamp Duty.

Given the terrible unwillingness to sell houses at a realistic level, you may be best off going for a new build where you will not need to pay Stamp Duty.

Just a point slinky - was it not closed for contracts executed after 31-Jan-08?

Could be wrong about that, thanks!

Nanor, you may well be right. In this case the OP hasnt purchased his new property so he and his partner will get hit with it.

I don't think there ever was a loophole and I don't think the loophole has been closed as such. I think that (some) people were resolutely ignoring Revenue guidelines as quite clearly set out in their Revenue Stamp Duty ( what is a First Time Buyer) leaflet but that when Revenue made it clear that they were likely to and actually were checking out purchasers who had claimed FTB stamp duty relief and had clawed back Stamp Duty not paid, plus penalties and interest, that the tide began to turn.

There will always be people who try to evade tax. There is, however, an almost certain inevitability about being caught out.

mf

The loophole was that the Revenue classified FTBs by whose name was on the Mortgage not whose name was on the deed. According to my broker, this has now changed so that all parties need to be on the mortgage as well.

slinky said:

The loophole was that the Revenue classified FTBs by whose name was on the Mortgage not whose name was on the deed. According to my broker, this has now changed so that all parties need to be on the mortgage as well.

Click to expand...

No - its the other way around. Revenue classified FTBs by whose name was on the deed not whose name was on the Mortgage.


People were buying a property ostensibly in the name of one person only, putting that person's name on the deeds only and the Lenders were facilitating this by allowing this with two names on the mortgage. In reality, Lenders were willing to facilitate tax evasion as in all cases the point was that the second named Mortgagor was contributing to the purchase of the house and therefore the purchasers were not entitled to ftb stamp duty relief.

There were other/problems issues with this - if there was a co-ownership agreement ( so very obviously the parties were formally agreeing in writing that it was their intention to purchase jointly) that would run into difficulties if it ever needed to be enforced as a Court would not deal with it because it was there to facilitate tax evasion. And there were serious issues about the non named persons rights if there was a problem and the parties fell out. Plus if the Lenders ever tried to repossess there could be issues with the non named owner not being on the deeds.

For all of these reasons, most lenders have rowed away from anything that causes problems down the line.

mf