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swop apartments

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  • 05-02-2018 6:09am
    #1
    beaufoy
    Registered Users Posts: 324 ✭✭


    I have an apartment on the first/top floor but my knees are bad so cannot climb stairs. If I find someone on the ground floor who does not mind swooping properties can it be done without taxes/lawyers


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    #2
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users Posts: 26,511 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    beaufoy wrote: »
    I have an apartment on the first/top floor but my knees are bad so cannot climb stairs. If I find someone on the ground floor who does not mind swooping properties can it be done without taxes/lawyers
    No.

    You'll need lawyers because, at the end of the day, each of you wants to end up owning a property that you can, if and when you wish, sell to someone else, mortgage, let out, etc. So you need to be property registered as the owner of the particular apartment. So you have to transfer your upstairs apartment to them, and they have to transfer their downstairs apartment to you, and both transfers need to be registered.

    And there'll be taxes because property transfers attract stamp duty. It makes no difference whether you transfer your apartment in return for (a) cash, or (b) some other asset, like another apartment.

    It would be simpler and cheaper if each of you held on to the apartment you own, and simple let it out to the other as a tenant. But this too has tax implications, since you would now be a landlord, and the property that you own would not be your principal residence. So you would want to talk to a solicitor before going down this road.


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    #3
    the_syco
    Registered Users Posts: 37,301 ✭✭✭✭the_syco


    beaufoy wrote: »
    can it be done without taxes/lawyers
    Although you may not use a lawyer, the other person will.

    Heck, if someone came to me saying that they wished to do a swap from prime top floor to bottom floor, without lawyers, I'd lawyer up in an instant as I'd be looking at how the scam works!


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    #4
    The_Conductor
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 32,285 Mod ✭✭✭✭The_Conductor


    There was a scheme akin to what you're describing- in place until 2002.
    You could swap assets, without any cash changing hands- without attracting anything other than nominal stamp duty (and solicitor's fees). It is being currently looked at- with the possibility of reinstating it, to encourage mobility in the market. Whether it comes to pass or not- remains to be seen- the stumbling block is a stated worry that it might add to increases in property prices.


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    #5
    4ensic15
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,691 ✭✭✭4ensic15


    It wasn't a scheme as such. The stamp duty regime was such that stamp duty was levied only on the person moving to the more valuable property and then only on the difference between the value of the two properties. It was increasingly availed of and seen as a tax dodge so now stamp duty is payable in full by each party on the full value of the property they acquire.
    It may encourage downsizing if a similar regime was introduced.


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