There is a lot of confusion about the new stamp duty that generally applies to purchases of second homes. One particular area of confusion lies where a person has already sold their main residence and is about to buy another one. The confusion lies where the person in question also owns other properties (or even just one other property).
So for example you may have sold your main residence in 2014 and have been renting for whatever reason in the interim before buying another property to live in. But let’s say that already own 2 rental properties as well. Will you have to pay the extra stamp duty if you already own property but have sold your main residence?
Well there is a clause in all of the complex conditions that says that if you sold your main residence before November 2015 and you are now going on to buy another property that will be your main residence, then as long as you buy the new property before November 2018, you are exempt from the additional 3% stamp duty tax.
This clause is part of the conditions that allow you to buy a new main residence within 3 years of selling the other one, except that the 3 year rule does not apply before 25 November 2015 before the higher rates of stamp duty were announced.
Anyone who buys a property which will be their new main residence after November 2018 will have the 3 year rule applied, i.e. the disposal of the old residence must have been within the previous 3 years.
So the message is, if you have disposed of your main residence before 25 November 2015, you own other property or properties, and you will at some point be looking to replace that main residence, you should do so before November 2018 or else you will have to pay the extra stamp duty.
You can check out the Final Guidance Notes issued by the government on the stamp duty changes here.