I am a first time buyer but need to pay stamp duty - can't believe it's so high

[HibiscusPurple]

I am a first time buyer and will be buying a property independently. But, because I am married to someone who bought a property years before we met, I have to pay stamp duty.

Let's assume the stamp duty holiday is not extended past March and that I buy a house for £250,000.

Am I right in thinking stamp duty payable is 12,500?

Do you have to pay this in one go or can you spread it out?

of course the property is taken into account, you’re married and your DH owns a house. That’s what happens when you marry someone, everything becomes joint. Don’t marry if you don’t want that.

Or OP could get divorced every time she wants to buy a house?

I’ve just seen that you and DH are renting. And that there is no equity in the house, after 10 years of mortgage payments. Even if he was only paying interest, you would have expected the value of the house to have increased significantly. Apart from your stamp duty situation, the first mortgage term will run out at some stage and the bank will want its loan repaid. You need to address this now.

I didn't pay SD in 2019.
My first mortgage. My DH isn't on the mortgage.
He has owned a property previously.

Did your DH still own the property at that time @Nohomemadecandles or had he disposed of it?

What do you mean @ForensicAccountant? The mortgage is, thankfully, repayment.

@HibiscusPurple you said there is no equity in the house. After 10y of both repayments and house price increases, you would expect there to be a decent amount of equity.
If it is a repayment mortgage, and payments are up to date, it will of course be paid off.

I think rather than just speaking to banks it would be worthwhile your DH's 'friend' getting advice from a really good mortgage broker if they haven't already - they can sometimes work magic.

It seems logically impossible there is no equity in the house as the mortgage has been paid for 10 years and is repayment. Unless DH afforded a ridiculously expensive place that has decreased in value.

Harsh as it will be, I'd force the sale. Would the other guy be able to add a family member to pass the affordability check?

I would be getting onto a local Facebook page and asking for recommendations for an amazing broker. I would then force the "friend" tomcome with you to sort it out. If that didn't work, I'd be asking friend for 9500 for the cost of stamp duty. If he didn't have that I'm afraid it would be the forced sale route.

This is why we pulled out of selling up and moving recently. We put the £70k stamp duty we would have paid towards building instead, since we actually preferred our location anyway. Like on Kirstie's Love it or List it it pays to think about ways of radically improving where you are.

Oh sorry just realised you mean to keep the other house anyway.

I don't think the OP said there was no equity, simply that it hadn't increased in price. So of they bought at £250k, the house is still with £240k with the deposit and repayments there's be an equity of £50k. That's what I understood anyways.

I would try and be reasonable and explain your situation to the partner who owns the first house. Say what the situation is and ask him for the 10k of he can’t then say you will need to force the sale. If may be better for him to find 10k then lose the house.

sadly this isn't a "i'm a first time buyer" problem.

it's a problem because your DH is financially linked to someone else and hasn't extricated himself from that link in the 10 years he decided to walk away from the arrangement.

your DH will need to deal with this properly at some point - this is a bizarre situation to bury your head in the sand on, and has all sorts of implications (not just in terms of stamp duty, but if you'd ever needed housing in an emergency from the council they would have just told you to go away, in terms of other benefits).

I know that you say your DH hasn't got anything to do with the house he half owns.. but in legal, asset terms, he owns half a house.

he needs to deal with that blip from his past before starting to set up a financial life with you - most normal/responsible people would have dealt with this within a year of him moving out.. or at least when you got married...

i think he's buried his head in the sand long enough, OP.

@HibiscusPurple

DH isn't actually flaky, he made a crap decision while he was young, but I hope it makes you feel better by saying so.

We have tried again and again to get this bloke off the mortgage, but it's not possible.

The other man doesn't want to sell. We don't particularly want to spend thousands on forcing a sale. It would have to go to court in order to force a sale and I/we don't want that stress and expense.

Then the solution is pay the additional stamp duty tax. It's not fair, but if your DH won't get off the mortgage then this is the only solution. That's the law I think your DH really needs to get a new mortgage that he can 'afford on his own.

For differing reasons this has come up with a friend. I believe if he can get off the other mortgage within 3 years he can get the extra stamp back