We bought a derelict house in 2019 with the intention of doing it up into our family home. My partner has other property, so we were advised by our solicitor to pay stamp duty at the higher, multiple property rate.
A year later we came across an article about a tribunal between HMRC and the owner of another derelict property, who argued that they shouldn't have to pay the higher rate because, it being derelict, it doesn't constitute a 'dwelling'. The property owner won and, what's more, the judge also ruled that it shouldn't have been classed as residential either, lowering their stamp duty further. This tribunal took place a couple of months before we purchased our derelict property, but it took us a year before we found out about it.
We wrote to HMRC asking for a refund (works out about £7k), they've said no because there's apparently a 1yr deadline to claim it back (annoyingly, we missed it by 2 weeks!). I've never done this before, from my reading online it seems very complicated and I've read 1yr, but also 4yrs?!
I've gone back to our solicitor for help, but he has now changed firms. I've asked his replacement to write to HMRC, but he wants to charge me for his time. I think they should do it for free, as it was on their incorrect advice that we overpaid.
Does anyone have any knowledge on the HMRC deadline issue? Should our solicitor charge us?