Hello again

Well I seem to have stirred up a bit of a hornets nest with my question
about Stamp Duty. I am very impressed with how helpful everyone is trying to
be, and have found the replies to be fascinating as well as informative.

Can I clarify one or two points in my original post which have caused some
confusion and sent a few people in the wrong direction. Firstly, as things
stand at present, there are no Inheritance Tax implications. If I died
tomorrow, my estate would be well short of the threshold for that - and
anyway in the event that I suddenly became richer, and my wife and I both
died within the next seven years, I am quite prepared to make a declaration
so that the full market price of the property comes back into the
Inheritance Tax equation. Secondly, the purpose of the exercise outlined in
my OP is not entirely as I explained - but there is no attempt on my part to
evade tax. I will explain more fully.

The real reason why I wish to sell my house to my daughter in this manner
is, because of a change of circumstances, I find myself in rather a
difficult position - I am struggling to pay my mortgage. By modern standards
I have a relatively small mortgage, but because of my age (middle 50s) it
is payable over a much shorter period than usual - and, consequently, the
monthly payments are correspondingly high. One solution I thought would be
to sell the property to my daughter for £35,000, sufficient to clear the
mortgage - much more than this figure and she would struggle herself to meet
the monthly payments (with her other commitments - student loan repayment,
rent on flat, etc). As I said previously, she will inherit the house one day
anyway - but obviously not if we lose it ourselves. She does not own any
other property, and neither do I. What I said about my wife and I moving to
another house is not untrue, but we would not be able to do this for at
least a year. In the meantime we would probably stay where we are - paying a
small rent.

Obviously this whole project would be pointless if we have to involve
ourselves in expenses of probably several thousands of pounds in Stamp Duty,
surveys, searches, etc. Hence my question.


Regards

Phil