Your situation
Stamp duty when you move home
The order of your sale and your purchase decides whether you pay the surcharge up front, and each nation gives a different window to put it right.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
A home mover pays ordinary rates when the old main residence is sold before or on the day the new one completes: £11,250 of SDLT on a £425,000 house in England or Northern Ireland, £15,850 of LBTT in Scotland, £12,375 of LTT in Wales. Buy before the sale goes through and, for that moment, you own two homes, so the surcharge is due at completion: £21,250 more in England, £34,000 of ADS in Scotland and £20,700 more in Wales. The extra comes back once the old home sells, provided the sale happens within 3 years in England, 36 months in Scotland or 3 years in Wales, and you claim in time. Scotland and Wales also look backwards: a main home sold up to 36 months (Scotland) or 3 years (Wales) before the purchase still counts as replaced, even if you own another property.
Buying before you sell: the surcharge to fund
Extra tax at completion if the old home is unsold
£21,250
| Old home sold first (or the same day) | £11,250 |
| Paid at completion if not sold yet | £32,500 |
| Sale deadline to reclaim the extra | 3 years after completion |
Higher rates for additional dwellings (+5% on every band)
Same-day completion is the clean case
When a chain is arranged so that the sale of the old house and the purchase of the new one complete on the same day, that timing matters for tax as much as for the removal van. SDLT asks how many dwellings you own at the end of the day of completion, and a main residence sold that day is gone by then. The new home is a replacement, so ordinary rates apply and nothing needs to be reclaimed later. Scotland and Wales reach the same answer through their look-back rules, which treat a main residence already sold as replaced.
The bill is then what any buyer of a single home would pay. On a £425,000 house that is £11,250 in England or Northern Ireland, £15,850 in Scotland and £12,375 in Wales. First-time buyer relief is not available to a mover, whatever the price, because you have owned a home before.
Buying before you sell: what completion costs
When the new purchase completes first, you own two homes at the end of that day, so the return must be filed with the surcharge. The table shows the ordinary bill and the extra you must find, which is also the amount you can later get back.
| Price | England | Extra | Scotland | Extra (ADS) | Wales | Extra |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £250,000 | £2,500 | £12,500 | £2,100 | £20,000 | £1,500 | £13,450 |
| £350,000 | £7,500 | £17,500 | £8,350 | £28,000 | £7,500 | £17,450 |
| £425,000 | £11,250 | £21,250 | £15,850 | £34,000 | £12,375 | £20,700 |
| £550,000 | £17,500 | £27,500 | £28,350 | £44,000 | £21,750 | £26,950 |
| £750,000 | £27,500 | £37,500 | £48,350 | £60,000 | £36,750 | £36,950 |
| £1,000,000 | £43,750 | £50,000 | £78,350 | £80,000 | £61,750 | £49,450 |
The extra grows fastest in Scotland, because the ADS is 8% of the whole price, while England adds 5% to each band and Wales switches to a separate higher-rates table. For a family buying at £550,000, the difference between buying a week before the sale and a week after is £27,500 of cash in England and £44,000 in Scotland. That money has to be in your conveyancer’s client account before the return deadline: 14 days after completion for SDLT, 30 days for LBTT and LTT.
The windows, nation by nation
| England & NI | Scotland | Wales | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old home sold before the purchase | On or before completion day | Within 36 months before | Within 3 years before |
| Old home sold after the purchase | Within 3 years: refund | Within 36 months: refund | Within 3 years: refund |
| Claim by | 12 months after the sale or the filing date, whichever is later | Amend within 12 months of filing; later, overpayment claim within 5 years | Amend within 12 months of filing; later, claim within 4 years |
| Exceptional circumstances | Allowed (public authority restrictions) | None | Not covered here |
England and Northern Ireland
The old home must be sold within 3 years of the new purchase, and the refund must be claimed within 12 months of that sale or of the filing date of the original return, whichever is later. HMRC pays the difference between the higher rates and the ordinary rates, not the whole tax. The surcharge refund page works out the dates from your completion day.
Scotland
The ADS is repaid when the previous main residence is sold within 36 months of buying the new one. Three further conditions apply: the old property must have been your main residence at some point in the 36 months before the purchase, the new one must become your main residence, and for purchases since 1 April 2024 every buyer must live in it, although only one of them needs to have sold. Revenue Scotland aims to repay within 10 working days, with interest. The ADS repayment guide covers the claim.
Wales
The Welsh Revenue Authority refunds the difference between the higher and the main rates when the previous main residence is sold within 3 years. The claim goes in by amending the return within 12 months of filing, or later by a separate claim within 4 years of the day after the filing date, and the WRA indicates 15 to 20 working days to process it (LTT higher rates refund).
A worked case
A couple in Bristol agree to buy a £550,000 semi while their flat is still on the market. Completion comes first, so their conveyancer files the SDLT return at the higher rates and collects £45,000. Their flat sells eight months later. They then claim the £27,500 difference from HMRC, well inside both the 3-year sale window and the 12-month claim window. Had the same couple been buying in Edinburgh, the extra at completion would have been £44,000, the ADS on the full price.
Scotland and Wales look back as well
A buyer who sold the family home, moved into rented accommodation and only then found the next house does not pay the surcharge just because they still own something else, such as a let flat or a share in a holiday cottage. Scotland treats the purchase as a replacement if the previous main residence was sold in the 36 months before it. Wales does the same with a 3-year look-back. Without that previous sale, the other property would trigger the ADS or the higher rates.
A mover who owns nothing else after selling has no problem in any nation: a single dwelling at the end of the day means ordinary rates, wherever the money came from.
What can cost you the refund
- A share left behind. In England, if your spouse or civil partner keeps an interest in the old home, HMRC treats it as not sold.
- A late sale in Scotland. There is no discretion beyond 36 months, even when the market is slow or the property is hard to sell.
- The wrong old home. The property sold must have been your main residence, not a flat you let out. A rental sale never unlocks a refund, as explained in the buy-to-let guide.
- Not moving in (Scotland). The ADS refund needs the new property to be occupied as the main residence of every buyer; buying the next home as a pied-à-terre while staying in the old one does not qualify.
- A missed deadline. The sale can be on time and the claim still late: diarise both.
Funding the gap
If your sale lags, the surcharge has to come from somewhere: savings, a bridging loan, or a family loan repaid when the refund arrives. Whatever the source, build the surcharge into your budget before exchanging contracts on the new home, because the return deadline does not move if your buyer withdraws. If you are buying with someone who does not own a home, remember that one owner is enough to bring the surcharge into play for the whole purchase; the joint purchase calculator shows how the rate is decided.