CG65000 | Private residence relief: delay in taking up residence: Disposals on or after 6 April 2020

s223ZA TCGA92

For disposals on or after 6 April 2020, s223ZA TCGA92 provides for relief for a period between the acquisition of land, including land on which a dwelling-house stands, and the beginning of residence in a dwelling-house on that site. This provision replaces ESC D49 which applied for disposals prior to 6 April 2020 (see CG65003).

There are a number of conditions which have to be satisfied which are:

• the time at which the dwelling-house or the part of the dwelling-house first became the individual’s only or main residence (“the moving-in time”) was within the first 24 months of the individual’s period of ownership, and

• at no time during the period beginning with the individual’s period of ownership and ending with the moving-in time was the dwelling-house or the part of the dwelling-house another person’s residence, and

• during the period beginning with the individual’s period of ownership and ending with the moving-in time a qualifying event occurred. Qualifying events are:

  • the completion of the construction, renovation, redecoration or alteration of the dwelling-house or the part of the dwelling-house; or

  • the disposal by the individual of, or of an interest in, any other dwelling-house or part of a dwelling-house that immediately before the disposal was the individual’s only or main residence.

Where these conditions are satisfied the dwelling-house or part of a dwelling-house is treated as having been the individual’s only or main residence from the beginning of the individual’s period of ownership until the moving-in time.

In practice more than one qualifying event may occur before the moving in time. For example, an individual may buy a house and alter it by building an extension, then redecorate the whole house before moving in. Provided that the other conditions are satisfied (relating to taking up residence within 24 months and the dwelling-house not being a residence of anyone else) the delay in taking up residence should be accepted as qualifying for relief.

The effect of these provisions is explained at CG65013.