Will try and give as many details as possible without waffling! Divorced my ex about 9 years ago and it was agreed that I would remain in the family home with the children until such point I could buy him out or, when the youngest child turned 18, we would sell up and split the equity.
Fast forward a couple of years and I met someone new who I've now been with for just over 4 years, he already has a mortgage on a house which his parents live in (although they have now sold that, just waiting for the paperwork to all go through). I have nothing to do with that mortgage at all and when it sells all the money will be going back to his parents (he basically did it a while ago as his parents struggled to get a mortgage and he was living there at the time so just put it in his name but all the money in it is theirs if that makes sense?).
We decided to try and buy out my ex so we saw a mortgage advisor and he went through everything and have secured a mortgage that will pay off what I owe to my ex and a few little debts we both have. We are doing it as tenants in common, with me having the majority share, due to my equity in the house. The lender emailed yesterday to say that funds have been released to our solicitor for completion. We THEN get an email from the solicitors saying oh by the way, there's £5000 stamp duty to pay on this as it's a 2nd home (not my 2nd home but I guess on paper it is my OH's until the sale of his parents house is completed)
When we first saw the mortgage advisor though, he did not make us aware at any point that there would be stamp duty to pay on this and therefore we haven't factored this cost in anywhere. Is it right?! Is it our fault for not looking into it more or should we have been informed of this when we first saw the mortgage advisor?
Is there anything we can do?!