Stamp duty in the fact-find for mortgage brokers

Why it lands on your case

Most clients first see their stamp duty bill late in the purchase. The conveyancer works it out from the client's answers, often between exchange and completion. By then you've recommended a product on a loan-to-value that assumed a certain deposit.

If the higher rate applies and nobody spotted it, the extra comes out of the deposit. On a £350,000 home with a £35,000 deposit, the 5% higher rate adds £17,500. The deposit halves, the loan-to-value moves from 90% to 95%, the product may no longer fit, and the case comes back to you while the chain waits.

Why Consumer Duty makes it your concern

The FCA expects brokers to "go beyond assessing whether the customer meets a lender's criteria" and to "avoid causing foreseeable harm". A five-figure tax bill found a week before completion is foreseeable. Robert Sinclair of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries put it simply in January 2025 (Mortgage Solutions): it is "better to have a well-informed client prepared for potential higher buying costs".

The answer isn't to start advising on tax. In 2019 the Financial Ombudsman Service upheld a complaint against a network after its adviser told a client the higher rate wouldn't apply: he had given the impression he was advising on stamp duty (reported by Mortgage Solutions, August 2019).

Five questions that flag a higher bill

• Does anyone buying, or their spouse or civil partner, own any other property, or a share of one, anywhere in the world?
• Is the current home being sold before or on the same day as this purchase?
• Has any buyer ever owned a home before, anywhere? (First-time buyer relief depends on it.)
• Is anyone separating, or taking over a property from a former partner?
• Is the purchase through a company, of more than one home, or of a property with an annexe or a business use?

A "yes" or "not sure" to any of these is a reason for the client to check properly before you recommend.

How to raise it without advising

Send the client a Stamp link at the fact-find. They answer about 20 yes-or-no questions on their own phone. A straightforward purchase gets one figure; a complex one gets a low and a high figure and the reason. You plan affordability on the right number, and you never give a view on the tax. If advice is needed, the client chooses an independent tax firm from the panel or their own adviser.

The timestamped record goes on your compliance file: evidence that the client was prompted to check, at the point it could still change the outcome.

Sources

• FCA: our strategy for mortgage intermediaries, letter of 30 January 2025
• GOV.UK: Stamp Duty Land Tax residential property rates

This article is general information, not tax advice. Rules change: check the date above. Last updated October 2026.