Transfer of equity following a breakup

[Smoothieyummy]

Hi,

I’m so confused as to whether I need to oh stamp duty, please can someone advise me?

We are currently married and we bought a house together 2 years ago using my money and I pay the mortgage. We recently broke up and he agreed to be removed from the land registry so they the house stays under my name only.

We haven’t gone through the official divorce yet.

There’s no money changing hands, it’s just to remove his name and I stay on the property ownership. There’s no court order or anything yet. We are planning to do the paper work for the divorce later as there’s no rush.

Questions:

1. Is there any stamp duty payable?
   
2. Does it matter if I wait to get a divorce after the title transfer? Or before the title transfer?
   

Important to note that this is amicable and there will be no dispute of the ownership of the house.

[Anotherlongdrive]

Will the mortgage company allow this?

From what I can gather, some do and some dont.

[ChicCauldron]

If he is on the mortgage then the mortgage company will have a charge on the house and it probably needs their approval too.

[Smoothieyummy]

Mortgage lender is OK with this. This is a new mortgage (remortgage) and the new mortgage will be under my name only.

[Smoothieyummy]

Question is, do I need to pay stamp duty or not? No money changing hand, just removing his name from the ownership. My name stays.

[billandbenflowerpotmen1]

I did this and No, I didn't pay stamp duty

[FreckledLeopard]

I don't believe any stamp duty is payable - my DP took a chunk of equity from his ex in his divorce (she took over the mortgage in her sole name) and no stamp duty was payable.

[user1471530109]

No stamp duty
But there are fees. I had to pay the banks solicitor fees (or something....was a few yes ago now). Took forever but was painless. Biggest pain was the new mortgage as although they agreed in principle when it came down to the underwriters, they were v v difficult. Mortgage payments were £300 a month LESS than what I was paying WITH THEM previously. i may have lost my shit Don't go with HSBC is my advice. I've been told it's normal for them .

The fees were a few hundred I think. And it had to be their solicitor. I wasn't allowed to choose . Then had to pay land registry.

[Collaborate]

Previous posters are just guessing, and they’re wrong.

SD is payable and it’s based on the equity being transferred. If however you get divorced and the transfer is pursuant to a court order made within divorce it is exempt from SD. I strongly suspect the PPS avoided SD due to this.

[billandbenflowerpotmen1]

Previous posters are just guessing, and they’re wrong.
I'm not guessing!
My post stands, I didn't pay stamp duty.
It was about 10 years ago so things may have changed. I gave my H a lump sum, I took out a new mortgage with the same provider in my sole name, we used solicitors and I didn't pay any stamp duty

[Collaborate]

@billandbenflowerpotmen1 You only didn’t pay stamp duty because you were below the threshold, not because it was exempt.

[billandbenflowerpotmen1]

The house was valued at 300,000 at the time I took out the new mortgage in my name. I didn't realise this was below the threshold

[Anotherlongdrive]

OP, if you have the mortgage sorted havent you engaged a solicitor? Surely they should have told you all that?

As for the divorce. A judge could feel that it was entirely unfair on your stbexh and not allow the divorce to go through until it's made fair. But that's quite rare.

[user1471530109]

Collaborate I too am not guessing

OP , like the MANY pp on here who have gone through your situation, no stamp duty was paid. I'm not a solicitor, but surely if the new sole owner was already an owner, there would be no case for this?

Anyway. Good luck! It's not an easy time I'm sure

[Collaborate]

There are two issues.

1. Is the transaction subject to stamp duty?
   
2. What is the amount of stamp duty payable?
   

The answer to OP is that it is subject to SD. It is not exempt. It would be exempt if the transfer was subject to a court order on divorce, but it is not.

PPs saying they never paid SD either did their transfer of equity after a divorce, or the amount involved was below the threshold. It's like someone earning less than £10k a year coming on here adamant that income tax doesn't exist simply because they don't pay it.

Don't take my word for it. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/523010/Party_Wall_etc__Act_1996_-_Explanatory_Booklet.pdf

[Collaborate]

Wrong link www.gov.uk/guidance/sdlt-transferring-ownership-of-land-or-property#if-you-transfer-or-divide-up-jointly-owned-property-or-land-unmarried-couples-and-other-joint-owners

[user1471530109]

Well, it was before divorce so must have been exempt! No one (solicitor) mentioned any of this. Collaborate it surely would have been a lot easier for you to just say that the exemption rules were different in this case. 🤷. Then no need to keep repeating yourself in a very condescending way. Just saying.

OP, hope the links PP have sent help you and that you too won't have to pay SD. In regards to then divorce, it made no difference that house was in my name btw. It stayed in my name because xh was too lazy to appoint a solicitor and too guilty about his affair not to fight it through divorce. I did make sure I applied for a consent order asap to make sure he couldn't change his mind! A solicitor friend (who didn't mention the SD ) also told me to sort it quick as the guilt and their good will has a shelf life. Extremely good advice that I'm v glad I followed. I'm sure even without the affair guilt, it is still valid.

[Collaborate]

@user1471530109 I literally said what the rules were in my first post on this thread: If however you get divorced and the transfer is pursuant to a court order made within divorce it is exempt from SD.

Sorry that I didn't come armed straight away with my references to the law and government guidance. There's a lot of things I just know, as a solicitor who has been advising clients getting divorced for over 25 years. I don't have every reference to hand, and to be frank I'm not inclined to take the time to dig one out every time I'm challenged. I'm not getting paid for this.

I'm not condescending if I correct posters who I know are giving wrong advice in an area they know nothing about save for their limited personal experience when they didn't have to understand why they didn't have to pay stamp duty. But if you want to double down on your wrong advice, go ahead. Please first point to one of my posts here that was condescending.

[user1471530109]

Every post you've written has been a dig at PP. Everyone else on here hasn't guessed at anything.

If you'd said from the beginning that 1) you were a solicitor and 2) the SD exempt thresholds were different in these circumstances, you wouldn't have had got everyone else's backs up.

When I give advice in my field of expertise on this forum, I always state why I know what I'm saying. I like to think I don't put anyone else and their comments down. From the get go, you've come across as rather up her/himself. I'm sure that not on a forum, you wouldn't dare speak to people the way you have come across on here. But like you say, maybe that's because you get paid not to.

The OP is going through a tough time if a relationship has ended and is asking advice. The PP who answered her weren't guessing! They were all from personal experience. My previous house wasn't under SD thresholds and was before divorce which is why your post to most of us didn't ring true.

OP, sorry your thread has been derailed. I guess I'm just overly annoyed and apologise OP.
Collaborate's links I'm sure will answer your questions. Good luck I will leave you to it

[prh47bridge]

Regular posters on this topic are well aware that Collaborate is a lawyer, as are some other posters. The lawyers don't trumpet that fact on every thread.

Collaborate seems to have got your back up. He doesn't appear to have got everybody else's back up as you claim.

[Collaborate]

If I'd have said that the SD exempt thresholds were different in these circumstances I'd have been wrong.

[Jon6b]

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and I really wish people would not come on here with inaccurate advice because it can cause endless problems for those who believe them.