My letter and response for huge blow to investors buying their main residence!

This is outrageous, it really is.

you should never have to pay the inflated SDLT rate on our personal residence, regardless of weather or not you already own one, thats not what the new SDLT is for!

also, its unfair on partners of people in property, who are not involved with the business, but are buying a residence togeather, that they are dragged into it and will have to pay the higher SDLT too

Would the 15+ properties exemption apply in your situation?

Having always had some interest in politics but never been strongly in favour of one party over another, it's policies like this and many others that will for the first time encourage me to protest vote against the Conservative Party during the next General Elections.

How sad that the very first time I will vote will be to vote the government out and not select a party for it's merits.

You can always have a PPR. One of your properties should be nominated as such. To say you lose that because you sold six years ago is nonsense. When did you make your last purchase? There is a two year period in which you can nominate a PPR. Unless that has changed....

Reply to the comment left by "Monty Bodkin" at "09/03/2016 - 15:55":

Apparently they are reviewing the '15 property rule' they said it's likely it won't be included and I will have to wait till 16th to read the full guidance

Reply to the comment left by "Puzzler " at "09/03/2016 - 22:30":

We have a buy to let coming empty soon so we are thinking of moving into that temporarily while keeping this rental close to the boys school, then selling it before buying this house. Bit of a polava but will be good for capital gains so by screwing us on one tax system we are forced into this and will end up save money on another.

That's shocking!! I wasn't aware that there were complications around SDLT from the whole PPR side of things if you were buying a property as a PPR from rented accommodation.

I believe the 15 property 'possible exemption' may be only when you are buying 15 in one go, not if you already own 15 or more.

Good luck with working out the best way round Shirleyann, as it sounds like you now have...

Unfortunately the answer was predictable! Very unfortunate. I would certainly look at the 15 plus exemption rule though, as suggested by Monty.

Unless the 15-property exemption applies in your case, I would do the following:

1. When your BTL becomes empty, send a letter to your tax office stating that you own multiple properties and wish to nominate the empty one as your Principal Private Residence. Back-date this nomination for two years (the maximum allowed) from the date your tenant moves out. This will mean the BTL house will have already qualified for two years as your PPR for tax purposes.

2. Establish residency in this property: move your bank accounts and credit cards to that address, register with a GP, get your name on the council tax and electoral rolls. Ideally you would also literally live there, so the neighbours recognise you and can attest that you were in fact resident. Whatever used to be the practice when MPs were "flipping" their residencies to avoid capital gains tax, HMRC are now very hot on private individuals proving that their PPR occupancy was a *fact*, not just a nomination. If you just nominate the BTL property as your PPR, but actually continue to live elsewhere, your nomination may later be denied by HMRC.

3. Live in the house for at least six months, or preferably a year, or until such time as you can justifiably argue that you saw "the house of your dreams" and decided to move to a new PPR.

4. Sell the old BTL property - this is crucial - and then buy your new PPR within 18 months. Your capital gains tax bill will be reduced on the BTL property because you have established it as your PPR for around 3 years, and as you have established your PPR at the BTL address, you won't have to pay extra 3% stamp duty on your new home.

However, speaking frankly, is it really worth all this faffing around, just to avoid 3% in stamp duty?

today I received a phone call from Alan Ward chairman of RLA about this situation. He has referred this case to a PR consultant who has asked if I will do an article in the Telegraph. I would be more than happy to pay 3% more on a future BTL but resent it in this case as its my only private residence. I'm pulling out all the stops to complete before the 1st April but it's extremely frustrating that we won't know what details are in the policy until 16th then it's implemented 2 weeks later.