Following the commencement of The Finance Act 2013, and the new SDLT rules affecting pre-completion transactions (i.e. assignments and sub-sales) HMRC has issued guidance, for land registration purposes, on what evidence of SDLT compliance needs to be submitted to the Land Registry where a sub-buyer has two transfers to register (A to B, and B to C).
According to paragraph 2.21 of HMRC’s guidance on the SDLT pre-completion transactions rules, the sub-buyer (C) only needs to produce its own SDLT 5 with its application for registration of the transfers from A to B and B to C. The sub-buyer should also either:
(i) confirm in writing that B acquired the land from A and transferred it to C in pursuance of a free-standing transfer for the purposes of Schedule 2A to the Finance Act 2003, or
(ii) produce written confirmation from B (or B’s agent) that B acquired the land from A and transferred it to C in pursuance of a free-standing transfer for the purposes of Schedule 2A to the Finance Act 2003.
This approach is now confirmed by the Land Registry on its website.