What the heck is "Lease premium payable"?

[Sandrine1982]

Hi there.

So we're planning to make an offer on a property we viewed recently and we really like. It's a 3-bed flat built in 2018 and has 122 years remaining.

I'm trying to calculate how much stamp duty we'll pay using the government calculator. But I cannot - for the life of me - make sense of that page that asks for the "Lease premium payable" and the following page asking for "amount of rent for year 1 to year 5".

What amount should I put in there?????

I don't have access to the lease documents and I don't even understand what this is.

Any advice greatly appreciated :)

I don’t think you need to worry about that. You only pay SD on a lease if you’re taking on a new lease. If you’re buying an existing lease you just put in the property purchase price. Does that make sense?

Lease premium is how much you are paying for the flat. The rent is the ground rent.

The lease premium is the amount paid upfront for the granting of a lease.

As you aren't buying a new lease (and unless you have reason to believe that the lease is unusual), I'd just state the property is freehold as the rates and thresholds are the same.

www.gov.uk/guidance/stamp-duty-land-tax-leasehold-purchases

that is for commercial lease, use domestic section.

Thank you all. That's reassuring