As a tenant, when am I liable for stamp duty?

I began renting in January 2017 and will be asked in November if I wish to remain in the property

Q I understand that a liability for stamp duty land tax (SDLT) arises for residential tenants when their cumulative rent exceeds £125,000. I am struggling to identify what level of liability I may face if I renew my rental agreement later this year.

I started renting on 31 January 2017 at a rate of £525 a week. The initial term was for two years. This was renewed for a further two years at the same rate, in November 2018. I will be asked in November this year whether I wish to remain in the property. If I do remain, assuming it’s on the same terms I will reach the £125,000 threshold by September 2021.

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The stamp duty reduction claim HMRC is cracking down on Nottingham Estate Agents

The temptation to try and claim for reduced stamp duty liability is great. Note: Stamp duty has been cut to zero for residential property purchases in England and Northern Ireland up to £500,000 from 8 July 2020 until 31 March 2021, read more here. Residential Stamp Duty Land Tax runs on a sliding scale up […]

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Seed saving can be exciting and rewarding

Right now is the perfect time to embark on an experimental journey

To the uninitiated, gardening can seem like it’s full of complex, rigid rules that must be strictly adhered to in order to avoid utter failure. But in horticulture there is really no such thing as mistakes, only “experiments”. And the best news? Right now is the perfect time to try out one of the most exciting (and rewarding) for yourself: seed saving.

Saving seeds from your own garden to sow next year has a long list of benefits. Most obviously, it can save you money – particularly for annual plants which normally die at the end of each growing season, so would otherwise require repeat purchases every year. Secondly, natural cross pollination and spontaneous mutations can mean you get surprising new varieties. And thirdly, given how short the commercial lifespan is for many varieties before they fall from horticultural favour, it can sometimes be the only way you can guarantee access to your favourite niche cultivars. However, in my experience, a significant part of conventional wisdom for seed saving is either unnecessary or simply not borne out by real-world testing.

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Seed saving can be exciting and rewarding

Right now is the perfect time to embark on an experimental journey

To the uninitiated, gardening can seem like it’s full of complex, rigid rules that must be strictly adhered to in order to avoid utter failure. But in horticulture there is really no such thing as mistakes, only “experiments”. And the best news? Right now is the perfect time to try out one of the most exciting (and rewarding) for yourself: seed saving.

Saving seeds from your own garden to sow next year has a long list of benefits. Most obviously, it can save you money – particularly for annual plants which normally die at the end of each growing season, so would otherwise require repeat purchases every year. Secondly, natural cross pollination and spontaneous mutations can mean you get surprising new varieties. And thirdly, given how short the commercial lifespan is for many varieties before they fall from horticultural favour, it can sometimes be the only way you can guarantee access to your favourite niche cultivars. However, in my experience, a significant part of conventional wisdom for seed saving is either unnecessary or simply not borne out by real-world testing.

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Rental contracts: Top tips before you sign on the dotted line Nottingham Estate Agents

You’ve found somewhere to rent. You’re already thinking about the curtains. But before you get carried away, there’s the small matter of your tenancy agreement. As estate agent Savills says: “No matter how keen you are to find a rental property, you should never rush into a tenancy without knowing your rights and responsibilities, as […]

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Putting the growing season to bed | Allan Jenkins

As the days dim, it’s time to tidy, dig and maybe sow for spring

Let’s face it, October is not much of a growing month. It’s the time of damage limitation; preparation for winter; tidying – shutting down your veg garden if that is your wont.

First, what we are up against. We lose two hours of light this month. No more the long, high-sun, late-summer evenings, picking, sowing and mooching after work. My almanac says the sun will set before 4.30pm in southern England, but before 5.15pm in the west of Ireland. It is the month the clocks fall back. October has full moons topping and tailing the month: the harvest moon we had on the 1st, the hunter’s (also known as blood) moon is still to come on the 31st.

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Exploring Somerset’s garden of earthly delights

An aerial walkway is among the wonders at the spectacular Hadspen estate open to the public

If you walk left on entering the Newt in Somerset, past the shop selling artisanal wares, up the slope and into the deer park, you will arrive at an avenue of pines edging an old Roman road. It’s a good place to view the monumental scale of the work that has taken place on the 800-acre Hadspen estate since the South African, Koos Bekker, and his wife Karen Roos bought it in 2013.

Look west, towards the 17th-century, Grade II*-listed Hadspen House and you can take in the owners’ masterplan, designed by the French architect Patrice Taravella. There are the pretty squares of the kitchen garden; the egg-shaped “parabola”, a walled labyrinth featuring 267 varieties of apple tree; a cascade of ponds; a Victorian glasshouse; a cottage orné; and a succession of pools and lawns leading up to the house itself, once the seat of the Hobhouse family, now a hotel.

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