Stamp duty land taxIn an attempt by the Government to improve the affordability of housing, a new stampduty land tax (SDLT) surcharge now imposes on non-UK residents an extra two per centof SDLT on the purchase of residential property. The complexity of SDLT has increasedonce again and many questions spring to mind: exactly which purchases does thesurcharge apply to, when does it take effect and how is residency determined? CharlotteBlack’s article addresses all these questions and more.There remains a brief window to take advantage of reduced SDLT for a purchase ofresidential property as the full benefit of the ‘stamp duty holiday’ granted at the startof the pandemic (which increased the nil tax threshold to £500,000) will now end on30 June 2021. The threshold will then reduce to £250,000 on 1 July before returning to£125,000 on 1 October.Residential evictions still on hold…Whilst residential possession claims may now be issued, and pre-existing claimsreactivated, evicting a residential tenant remains beyond the reach of most landlords. Areview hearing is now required before a substantive possession hearing and a landlordmust provide evidence of the impact of the pandemic on their tenant. Even then, savein limited situations such as at least six months’ rent being unpaid, possession orderscannot be enforced so it remains unlawful to evict most residential tenants and will be sountil at least 31 May 2021.… and commercial landlords similarly constrainedThe Government has, again, extended the moratorium on forfeiture of commercial leasesto 30 June 2021 preventing a landlord from effecting re-entry or forfeiture for non-payment(whether or not for a coronavirus related reason). Likewise, restrictions on the use ofCommercial Rent Arrears Recovery have been extended to the same date after which itis due to revert to the pre-coronavirus threshold of seven days’ rent. Further ahead, theGovernment intends to conduct a review of a broad range of commercial landlord andtenant legislation including “the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 Part II, different models of rentpayment, and the impact of coronavirus on the market”.Rural Estates NewsletterSpring 20215
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