Hi John,
Im thinking about possibly studying for mortgage advising so anything I post must be clarified as respectfully Im not qualified but here goes....
Stamp duty land tax (SDLT) is levied on all transactions over 125,000 and is paid by the buyer as you probably know.
It is calculated on a sliding scale according to the purchase price as follows:
stamp duty land tax (rates effective from April 2006)
Purchase price ()
0125,000 Nil
125,001250,000 @ 1%
250,001500,000 @ 3% over 500,000 @ 4%
No stamp duty is payable on zero carbon homes purchased for 500,000 or less.
As far as the Chartered Institute of insurance is concerned (they give out qualifications CF1 and CF6 for mortgage practitioning and advice) they quote
"First-time buyers differ from other buyers in that they do not have any profit from a previous house sale to bring to the current transaction."
Therefore purely going by that you would not be a first time buyer as you are likely to have had a profit from the previous property but on the flipside I think the golden question is how can the lender prove you are not a 1st time buyer? or where is the evidence that you are not a first time buyer? Surely if theres no proof that your not a FTB then other than you, who's to say your not? If you can clearly satisfy these questions then you have your answer. whether an aspect of fraud is in question or not is open for debate as I dont know if a time scale affects this secondly if the lender cant prove your not a first time buyer is it a crime?? (interesting?!)
As for the bit about your partner there are different mortgages you can get depending on if your married, co-habitee etc and depending on your marital status I think (but dont quote me) may possibly allow the other half to get SDLT exemption . I will look into it and get back to you with what I find as I want to learn more about this topic and if anyone would shed light on this that would be great.
In the mean time I need to get some kip...zzz zzz