Thank you for your responses, very helpful. Many thanks

Even if you were buying the freehold yourself you'd still have to pay the stamp duty as you already own an interest in property (the leasehold) so don't qualify as a first time buyer.

The new ruling states :

"The purchaser must not, either alone or with others, have previously acquired a major interest in land which includes residential property, or an equivalent interest in land situated anywhere in the world."

SuzyL - My management company have advised, as the purchase is through our flat management company it doesn’t fall under the exemption and I have to pay 3% stamp duty

As above - your company is the actual purchaser, they do not qualify as first time buyers, therefore as a company that already has interests in land or property they are not entitled to the new exemption. There are also other factors such as linked transactions that need to be taken account of, it's all in the publication from HMRC below.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2010/sdlt-qa-tech-1545.pdf

Hi, I hope I explain a complex situation in simple way.

I’m a first time buyer, and purchased a lease hold flat 3 months ago for 226k. I missed the new stamp duty 250k exemption by 3 months.

All leaseholders including myself have now agreed to purchase the freehold at a sum of 441k UKP. A 3% stamp duty is applied to this amount, and individuals have been asked to pay 800 UKP.

My individual cost of the freehold is 21k. Either way you look at this, the 21k or the total cost of the property to date is 247k are both less than 250k.

My question is, based on the above should this not fall under the 250k stamp duty exception?

My management company have advised, as the purchase is through our flat management company it doesn’t fall under the exemption and I have to pay 3% stamp duty (I have a share of the flat management company).

Any advice here greatly appreciated.

Many thanks