In March 2010, it was announced that First Time Buyers will not have to pay stamp duty on properties they buy which cost under 250,000. The stamp duty payable for a non first time buyer would have been 1% of the property value for properties valued between 125,000 and 250,000. This concession will remain in force for 2 years.
However there is some fine print that will affect a few of us. First time buyers has been defined very strictly. Up until now First Time buyers was defined more loosely.
To be eligible for this stamp duty concession, you must have never owned a land or building either currently or in the past anywhere in the world. Many of my clients who originally are from India or other parts of Asia are dis-advantaged by this strict definition which means if you owned a property / land in India then you would not be eligible for this stamp duty concession and you have to pay 1% of the property value.
If you meet the criteria, the solicitors who act for you in the purchase of the property will ask you to sign the relevant form in which you have to declare that you have never owned a property anywhere in the world and also must declare that you would use the property that you buy purely for the purpose of a residence (not buy to let for instance) and if you are happy to confirm these 2 you should then get a concession.
In case of joint applicants both applicants must fulfil these conditions to be eligible for the concession so if Mr did not own any property abroad but if his wife owned a property then you would not be eligible for concession and must pay the full stamp duty.
I am often asked how the HMRC which collects the stamp duty will be able to investigate if someone has owned a property abroad the answer is simple if you lie in your declaration then you are committing a fraud and the consequences of being subject to fraud are well known and this is not something one would like to get into.