Stamp duty on second home: will propertyless co-owner save me cash?

I have a flat and want to buy another property, listing my husband as joint owner

Q In 2016 I bought a flat and have since married. My husband does not work due to ongoing mental health issues and he does not own any property of his own.

I want to move to a house but ideally would like to keep the flat as an investment for our son when he grows up. 

Would I have to pay the full second home stamp duty if I buy the new home but list myself and my husband as joint owners?

Basically the higher stamp duty rate would be quite restrictive for me on the new property and I am wondering if there is a way around it?
AP

A No, there isn’t a way for you to avoid paying the higher rate of stamp duty land tax (SDLT) – which is the standard rate plus three percentage points – on the purchase of a second home. You are mistaken if you think that, because your husband doesn’t own any other property, he would be let off paying the higher rate of SDLT if you listed him as a joint owner on the new house. It would make no difference at all. If the higher rate of SDLT is due because either (or both) the joint purchasers has other property, the higher rate applies to the whole purchase price.

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Buying or selling a property affected by Japanese knotweed? Nottingham Estate Agents

We asked Nic Seal, Environmental Scientist and Managing Director of Environet UK to provide advice to buyers and sellers of property affected by Japanese knotweed. It’s the UK’s most invasive plant and awareness among the general public has grown significantly in recent years, but why exactly is knotweed such a cause for concern among homeowners? […]

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‘I feel as if my garden has finally come of age’ | Nigel Slater

After 20 years, three incarnations and some hedge heartbreak, Nigel Slater at long last has his perfect sanctuary – and without a blade of grass in sight

I could barely wait to dig up the lawn. Getting rid of the rectangle of mown grass that passed for a garden was almost the first thing I did when I moved into my new home on a bitterly cold New Year’s Day, 20 years ago. An act of vandalism to some, but to me the patch of brown earth, chips of broken china and old, soil-filled medicine bottles it left behind was just the blank canvas I needed.

The wielding of the spade must have been symbolic, because I did nothing more outside for months. I wanted to create a place to think. A green space in which to clear my head in between recipes, or to untangle a knotted sentence. A lawn has its uses as a safe place for children to play, somewhere to kick a ball around or to sunbathe, but it wasn’t the right garden for me. I don’t find inspiration or peace in a neatly edged rectangle of grass. All I see is a wasted opportunity. I wanted a garden where my imagination could run, where I could make a home for bees, birds and butterflies and where I could escape to when the house was full of people. A place that would act as both inspiration and sanctuary.

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‘I feel as if my garden has finally come of age’ | Nigel Slater

After 20 years, three incarnations and some hedge heartbreak, Nigel Slater at long last has his perfect sanctuary – and without a blade of grass in sight

I could barely wait to dig up the lawn. Getting rid of the rectangle of mown grass that passed for a garden was almost the first thing I did when I moved into my new home on a bitterly cold New Year’s Day, 20 years ago. An act of vandalism to some, but to me the patch of brown earth, chips of broken china and old, soil-filled medicine bottles it left behind was just the blank canvas I needed.

The wielding of the spade must have been symbolic, because I did nothing more outside for months. I wanted to create a place to think. A green space in which to clear my head in between recipes, or to untangle a knotted sentence. A lawn has its uses as a safe place for children to play, somewhere to kick a ball around or to sunbathe, but it wasn’t the right garden for me. I don’t find inspiration or peace in a neatly edged rectangle of grass. All I see is a wasted opportunity. I wanted a garden where my imagination could run, where I could make a home for bees, birds and butterflies and where I could escape to when the house was full of people. A place that would act as both inspiration and sanctuary.

Continue reading...

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Two decades ago, the architect built a groundbreaking green space for living and working. How has ‘the straw bale house’ endured?

“I’m a real believer in trying things,” says the architect Sarah Wigglesworth. “That’s how you learn. Taking risks is really important. I’m interested in the things that give a kind of joy and maybe disrupt things. I am interested in pushing boundaries. Anything that does that is good.”

Wigglesworth – who was appointed MBE in 2004 and became the first woman to receive the Royal Designer for Industry award for architecture in 2012 – is describing herself, but she could easily be talking about how she designed her home in north London. 9/10 Stock Orchard Street is the multi-award-winning live/work space of Wigglesworth and her partner, Jeremy Till. Built 20 years ago, the “straw bale house”, as it was invariably called, instigated a debate about the aesthetics of eco-architecture. “At that time,” Wigglesworth recalls, “the green movement was about dropping out to north Wales or somewhere and building something quite vernacular with your hands. We wanted to make an urbane version of that, in an urban setting.”

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Doorstep delights: why front gardens matter

A place to socialise, an oasis for wildlife, a gift to our neighbours – a front garden can be all of these things. Isn’t it about time we showed them some love,asks Clare Coulson

Last month, with more time at home than usual, Charlotte Harris, one half of the landscape design duo Harris Bugg, decided to dig up her paved front garden in Newham, east London. “It was a discussion we’d been having for a while,” says Harris, who gardens with her girlfriend Catriona Knox. They’d already removed the paving from the back garden of their house, which is in a densely populated area of the city undergoing vast amounts of regeneration. “Around here every bit of green space feels precious,” she says. “Obviously there are parks, but I think each of us has to take responsibility for any space we have.”

As you’d expect in a city, the new front garden needs to work hard to accommodate bins, bikes and a composting hot bin, but Harris is determined to plant as much as possible in the rest of the space, including a small tree (on the shortlist are a Sichuan pepper tree, hawthorn or a Chinese fringe tree) underplanted with perennials and bulbs.

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