Clutter!

[alicat]

What exciting news about your flat purchase @tyred! I hope it keeps going well for you.

 

[wheresthetorch]

We are moving in a couple of weeks time, having lived in this house for 13 years. Clearing out the garage and loft was a bit of a nightmare, and we've already filled two skips! Plus stuff of any worth going to charity shops.

It was quite challenging going through the loft as my sons (now 21 and 18) grew up here, so there was much of sentimental value - cards from them, things they made at school, etc. The Lego was the biggest challenge - boxes and boxes of it, but no guarantee the sets were complete. However, I spotted that the local branch of Mind were seeking donations of Lego for a couple of projects, and they were delighted to take it off my hands. Win-win!

 

[Electric_Andy]

My house is fairly free of clutter but I've only been here 3 years. My garage on the other hand is packed full of tools. I thought about putting up a shed in the garden but I would really like to sell all my garage stuff and make it into a nice carpeted snug

 

[bikingdad90]

To be fair, we were in our original home for 18 years before selling a business and the tax man would have it if we didn't spend it so I bought a house to facilitate a life change before selling our original house and then bought what we thought was the perfect house only to realise that it probably was but just in the wrong location we sold that and bought another, but fell through so had to rent back end of last year and have just had an offer accepted on what I hope to be our last home for the next 25 years at least.

If you paid SDLT at the higher rate because you had a “second home” at some point, make sure you look into submitting an amended return to pay at the rates for the principal home. HMRC have recognised recently it is becoming more common for people to have an interim period in order to keep the sale and are allowing claims for a refund.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

We started out in a bed sit, we moved to our first house with the aid of a man with a transit, we were there 15 years, both our sons were born there, when we moved out I hired a box van and moved us with the help of two friends, took us all day and ended with a trip to the tip with a van full of junk, after 10 years we moved again and needed a full sized removal van and crew, before we moved I did numerous trips to the local charity shop with shopping trolleys full of tat, plus several trips to the tip. We've been here now for 13 years and theres still boxes in the shed from when we moved in that are untouched, its mostly stuff belonging to our lads, there is only the two of us here now the lads have moved out, last time I tried to thin it outI nearly caused a family rift and divorce and still didn't get rid of much.

 

[Slick]

If you paid SDLT at the higher rate because you had a “second home” at some point, make sure you look into submitting an amended return to pay at the rates for the principal home. HMRC have recognised recently it is becoming more common for people to have an interim period in order to keep the sale and are allowing claims for a refund.

If I remember correctly, we didn't officially have a second home, we used the cash from a Ltd company so it wasn't ever really ours as such, and the cash went straight back in when we sold it. I might be wrong about the exact nature of the transaction but I do remember it was a bit of an accounting nightmare.