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How to sell your property in the UK when living abroad (2022)?

Have you moved abroad and now wish to sell your UK property?  This article explains potential challenges and offers you a stress-free solution if you are looking to sell quickly.

Can you sell your house while living abroad?

Selling your house when you live abroad is not easy if you were to instruct an estate agent or a solicitor.  You may have to appoint a Notary Public to pass ID documents and instruct a solicitor who understand the process of selling a property from abroad.  Sadly, vast majority of solicitors can’t help as it is not a regular occurrence.  Your solicitor may tell you to give a Power of Attorney to a relative or a friend and then trust them with a substantial sum of money?  It is so tempting for them to spend your money, and your solicitor to charge you upfront fees for drawing up Power of Attorney.  This can give you sleepless nights.

Can I sell my house in the UK while living abroad?

With no legal restricting preventing you from selling your UK home after you have relocated to live in another country, you can start the process today.  If you intend not to return to UK again or there is no other desire to retain ownership of property, selling a home that’s a surplus to requirements can release equity from the sale.  This can be a great financial help whether you wish to buy another property abroad or it goes towards your retirement pot or savings.

Because you are resident of another country, the process of handing documents including ID checks is a little more complicated and will cost a little bit more in legal fees.  This is where we can help you.

Featured: Little Britain - a British Supermarket in Tenerife. Spain has over 300,000 British Expats living abroad.

What do you do with your house when you move overseas?

With a rise in property fraud as reported by BBC, estate agents, solicitors and buyers are often suspicious when dealing with a homeowner from abroad.  It could because their professional indemnity insurance does not cover them as the risk of litigation is remarkably high in the event of someone pretending to be a seller, and the original and legitimate seller comes forward with a claim.

First thing you need to do is a agree to sell your property and given that you are thousands of miles abroad and estate agents insist on seeing you in person to conduct anti-money laundering (AML) checks, this would prove tricky.  It is simply not practical for you to fly thousands of miles to meet an estate agent in your living room or when a legal problem arises, or your solicitor insist that you provide them with a ‘wet signature’ in front of them to facilitate your home sale.

We recommend that you use Land Registry’s fantastic property alert service for free to prevent becoming the next victim of property fraud.

This is where Property Saviour can help you as we have worked with several homeowners from abroad, we understand the process very well.  We can also assist you with conveyancers that can act for you.  These legal professionals are responsible from drafting contracts required in selling a house, overseeing the transfer of cash from a sale and working with HM Land Registry to register new owner’s details for any house in England or Wales.

If you are a UK national living abroad, you can benefit from our expertise in buying your home for cash and provide you assistance with legal paperwork when it comes to selling your home.

The solicitors we use will use an international courier if they require physical documents to be signed although many prefer digital signatures.  With video call technology, phone, and emails there is no need to hold in-person meetings.

Do I have to pay Capital Gains Tax in the UK if I live abroad?

Even if you live abroad when you sell a property in UK, you may have to pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT) depending on any amount of profit you made since owning the property.  As the UK government’s website explains that this tax applies even if you are no longer considered to be a UK resident for tax purposes.  How much you will pay in Capital Gains Tax depends on several factors including whether you use your former home as a personal property, how long it was used for business purposes (including renting property) and were they any years where you spend 90 days or more in your former home and your personal tax circumstances.

We recommend that you use a professional and knowledgeable accountant – even if you think you do not owe any money.  If you do not know anyone, we can refer you to accountants.  Be sure to submit your Capital Gains Tax return within 30 days of sale your home.  These returns are required by law, and you will be fined if you fail to submit one.

How do you sell your home in the UK when you live overseas?

When you are living overseas, the practical limitations of getting back to UK means that you really have two possible options:

Using an estate agent to sell your house from abroad

As mentioned earlier, estate agents are very suspicious of dealing with ‘foreign sellers’ as it is easy to come-up with a fake ID and use a dodgy solicitor to approve your ID documents.  Their professional indemnity insurance companies may not cover them in the event of a fraud where they have not taken all reasonable steps to meet the seller and check IDs in person.  This may explain why they prefer to sit in your living room, inspect your ID documents, look you in the eye and shake you hand when you instruct them to sell your property.

There is an alternative way to sell if you are a genuine homeowner, we are here to help. We occasionally get people who are trying to sell other people’s home!

Sell to a cash house buying company from abroad

This is a much simpler and easier way to sell your home from abroad.  By selling to a cash house buying company, we will assist you from legals all the way to completing the purchase.  There are no estate agency fees or solicitor fees.  In fact, we will pay your solicitors fees in the UK and assist with any reasonable requests relating to the property – whether it is empty or tenanted.  Another benefit is that we do not mind if property needs work, and we will buy it in any condition.  There is no mortgage company involved as we will buy with our own cash.

We have many five-star reviews, and we hope you will leave us with a review too!

No. you do not need to be in the UK from selling your property to final completion, we can help. Once you accept our offer, we will get on with purchasing your property.

You will be liable for Capital Gains Tax (CGT).  Capital Gains Tax is calculated from your resale price minus your purchase price and associated costs.  You can also offset certain allowances and expenses.

It is always best to deal with an Accountant who is specialist in property tax matters.

Estate agent, solicitors and even a buyer will be suspicious of dealing with a foreign seller due to increases in property transaction fraud, as reported by the BBC.

As professional property buying company, this is not an issue for us. We can make you a cash offer and agree a completion date that works for both parties.

The post How to sell your property in the UK when living abroad (2022)? first appeared on Property Saviour.


This post first appeared on Property Saviour, please read the originial post: here

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