Stamp duty refunds, recovered properly.

Chattels and fittings wrongly included in the price

• Frequently missed
• Just and reasonable basis
• Evidence required

Stamp Duty Land Tax is charged on the consideration given for the land. Money properly attributable to loose chattels — free-standing furniture, curtains and blinds, carpets, white goods that are not plumbed or built in, garden machinery, an unfixed shed — is not part of the chargeable consideration at all. In the ordinary rush to complete, the whole price simply goes on the return and the tax is overpaid.

The saving is the value of the chattels multiplied by the marginal rate you were taxed at. On a £1.1m purchase, where the top of the price falls in the 10% band, a genuine £50,000 of chattels is £5,000 of stamp duty. At the higher rates for additional dwellings the same £50,000 is worth £7,500.

Two boundaries decide these claims. The first is what counts: anything screwed, plumbed, wired or cemented into the property — fitted kitchens, bathroom suites, built-in wardrobes, boilers, integrated appliances — is a fixture and part of the land. The second is value: the apportionment must be just and reasonable and reflect what the items were genuinely worth second-hand on the day, not what they cost new.

We work from an itemised schedule agreed between buyer and seller, valued honestly. Inflated chattels figures are among the first things HMRC looks for, and it is the buyer who signs the return — so we do this properly or we do not do it.

Typically relevant if: the sale included furnishings, carpets, curtains or appliances, the price was a single round figure, and no apportionment was made on the return.

Uninhabitable and derelict property

• Evidence-led
• Non-residential rates
• HMRC scrutinises closely

Residential rates apply to a building that is suitable for use as a dwelling. Where a property was genuinely not suitable on the day of completion — no safe water or electricity supply, no functioning sanitation, serious structural failure, active asbestos or fire damage — the non-residential rates may apply instead, and the difference can be substantial.

This is also the ground that unregulated agents abused most heavily, and HMRC challenges it hard. A tired kitchen, a damp patch or a house needing full modernisation is not enough. The test is suitability for use as a dwelling, not desirability.

We are candid about this one. If the evidence is a set of estate agent photographs showing a habitable but dated house, we will tell you there is no claim rather than take a fee for filing one.

Typically relevant if: the property was condemned, structurally unsafe, stripped of services, or subject to a demolition or prohibition notice at completion — and you have contemporaneous evidence.

Mixed-use and non-residential classification

• Genuine use required
• Rate differential
• Fact-specific

Where a transaction includes both residential and non-residential property, the whole purchase is taxed at the non-residential rates, which are considerably lower at higher values. Genuine examples include a flat above a let shop, a farmhouse sold with commercially farmed land, a house with a paddock under a formal grazing licence, or a property with a separately let office or workshop.

The word that matters is genuine. Land that is simply large, a garden that happens to be paddock-shaped, or an informal arrangement with a neighbour's horse will not do it. HMRC looks for commercial use in fact at the effective date, evidenced by agreements, invoices and use.

We assess the title, the plan, any leases or licences, and the actual use at completion before forming a view.

Typically relevant if: your title included let commercial space, a commercially exploited parcel of land, or agricultural land under a genuine agreement at the date of completion.

Missed reliefs and errors in the return

• Often overlooked
• Amendment route
• Quick to establish

Not every overpayment involves an exotic argument. A great many are simply mistakes made under time pressure: first-time buyer relief not claimed where it was available; chattels and fixtures wrongly folded into the chargeable consideration; linked transactions aggregated when they should not have been, or not aggregated when they should; the wrong effective date; relief for a transfer on divorce, separation or under a will overlooked entirely.

These are usually the fastest claims to establish because the answer is on the face of the documents. Where the return is still within the amendment window, the correction is also the cleanest one available.

Typically relevant if: the return was filed quickly, the transaction had any unusual feature, or nobody with a tax background ever looked at the figure.

Non-resident surcharge refunds

• 2% surcharge
• Residence test
• Separate deadline

Buyers who were not UK resident for SDLT purposes at the effective date pay a further 2% on residential property in England and Northern Ireland. The SDLT residence test is its own test — broadly, days of presence in the UK across a period spanning the transaction — and it is not the same as the statutory residence test used for income tax.

If you subsequently spend enough time in the UK to meet it, the 2% becomes repayable. On a £700,000 purchase that is £14,000, and it is claimed separately with its own time limit.

We check the day count against the correct test and the correct period, then prepare the claim.

Typically relevant if: you were living or working abroad around the time of completion and have since been present in the UK for a substantial part of a year.