New homeowners are being warned about cold calls from rogue tax repayment agents advising them to make speculative stamp duty land tax (SDLT) refund claims, which could leave them with large tax bills
The warning comes after a recent spate of stamp duty refund claims to HMRC failed to meet very specific criteria.
The agents have been known to call new property owners after finding them through Land Registry records and property search websites, promising money back on ‘unknowingly overpaid’ stamp duty.
In a recent example, a letter from a rogue agent suggested a homeowner may have overpaid £60,000 worth of stamp duty. The agent claimed the home could be designated as two properties, despite it clearly being one. This is not an isolated example - other cases include:
a claim that a bedroom could be a separate dwelling and in line for claiming ‘multiple dwellings relief’ because it had an en-suite and a built-in wardrobe which could be a kitchen if you added a microwave and a kettle;
a
