Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

SDLT higher rates and trusts: Schedule 4ZA pitfalls, minor beneficiaries and referral duties (England and Northern Ireland)

Published on: 04 November 2025

Published by a LexisNexis Private Client expert

Legal News

Article summary

Background

Ms Rayner bought a flat in Hove in May 2025 for £800,000. Relying on main residence rules, she paid about £30,000 in stamp duty, treating the Hove property as her sole home. Her Manchester house had been transferred into a trust naming her disabled son as beneficiary. She had been told to take her name off the Manchester title, which she did, and she confirmed that address remained the family home. Despite this, she paid only the standard stamp duty rate and not the additional rate for second properties, which could have reached £70,000. Guidance from a conveyancer and a trusts solicitor indicated the ordinary rate applied rather than the surcharge for further dwellings. She was incorrectly advised that she no longer counted as owning the Manchester property and so could regard the Hove flat as her only residence. That guidance carried a caveat making clear it was not specialist tax advice, and the licensed conveyancer directed that expert tax input should be obtained elsewhere, expressly excluding any tax advice from the scope of their engagement for the work they were undertaking, stating any tax issues should be taken to a specialist adviser independent of the conveyancing firm for advice...

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