Blog
Stamp duty exempt on uninhabitable properties at purchase
Thursday 26th January 2023
Carl O'Boyle BSc MRICS FCIOB MFPWS
Carl O'Boyle at Tayross RICS chartered building surveyors was recently asked to do a report on a building that had been bought at auction in London-the essence of the report was to establish that the building was not in a habitable state.
Normally a property will be declared in a uninhabitable state, if there are no kitchen, bathrooms or services connected to the property.
In this particular instance services were connected to the property that I had to declare them as being on safe, as they were not in compliance with service regulations.
Also, this particular property was literally infested by pigeons. Every room within the property has been infiltrated by pigeons, which had entered the building through a hole in the roof. Pigeons can transmit diseases.
This particular property was purchased at auction for £550,000. The buyer was able to save himself over £40,000 in stamp duty by having the building declared uninhabitable.
