From: Terry Harper 
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Subject: Re: Stamp duty question
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:45:16 +0000

On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:13:20 -0000, "Gadgetman"
 wrote:

>Can someone tell me if this possible.
>
>House 1 is for sale for £150000
>House 2 is for sale for £270000
>
>The owner of house 2 wants to purchase house 1 for £150000
>The owner of house 1 wants to purchase house 2 for £270000
>
>But  owner of house 1 agrees to purchase house 2 for £250000
>owner of house 2 purchases house for £130000
>ie: £20000 off the asking price of each house. thus only paying £2500 stamp 
>duty  on purchase of house 1.
>
>Is this legal?

Don't see why not. The prices have been mutually negotiated. You could
equally make the transaction by the owner of House 1 paying £120,000
and the owner of House 2 paying nothing, taking House 1 in
part-exchange.
-- 
Terry Harper
URL: http://www.btinternet.com/~terry.harper/