M
Misslaw
New Member
My husband and I are in the process of buying our first property in Australia after emigrating three years ago. As Campbell Newman helpfully abolished the first home buyer's grant for QLD the same month we began searching, we were hoping we may still at least qualify for stamp duty exemption given it's our first property. However we've been advised by our mortgage lender that we wouldn't qualify for stamp duty exemption if we had owned property previously, elsewhere in the world.
We do have a small property in the UK. Should we declare this? Does anyone know what process the Government go through to ascertain whether or not you have owned property elsewhere in the world - if they go through one at all? I have also been told that if one of you has and one of you hasn't owned property and you're buying the Australian home together, you DO qualify for the exemption overall. What are the legal implications if you didn't declare the property you owned elsewhere and this fact was discovered at a later date? I guess I'm just keen to understand whether this is a hard and fast rule which is closely monitored or whether it's a fairly common practice for ex-pats to gloss over any past interests in property if they were in another country.
We do have a small property in the UK. Should we declare this? Does anyone know what process the Government go through to ascertain whether or not you have owned property elsewhere in the world - if they go through one at all? I have also been told that if one of you has and one of you hasn't owned property and you're buying the Australian home together, you DO qualify for the exemption overall. What are the legal implications if you didn't declare the property you owned elsewhere and this fact was discovered at a later date? I guess I'm just keen to understand whether this is a hard and fast rule which is closely monitored or whether it's a fairly common practice for ex-pats to gloss over any past interests in property if they were in another country.
