Section 128 | Surrender of leases.

(1)Where a lease is or has been surrendered or, in Scotland, renounced at any time, a document evidencing the surrender or renunciation shall be treated for the purposes of stamp duty as if it were a deed executed at that time effecting the surrender or renunciation.

(2)Stamp duty shall be chargeable by virtue of subsection (1) on a document containing a statutory declaration, notwithstanding anything in land registration rules under the Land Registration Act 2002.^F1

(3)Stamp duty shall not be chargeable by virtue of subsection (1) on any lease or agreement for a lease or with respect to any letting if the lease or agreement—

(a)is made in consideration of the surrender or renunciation; and

(b)relates to the same subject matter as the lease surrendered or renounced.

(4)Stamp duty shall not be chargeable by virtue of subsection (1) on any document if a document falling within subsection (5) has been duly stamped.

(5)The documents that fall within this subsection are—

(a)a deed effecting the surrender or renunciation;

(b)an agreement which falls to be treated for the purposes of stamp duty as if it were such a deed;

(c)any document which falls to be so treated by virtue of subsection (1); and

(d)any lease or agreement falling within subsection (3).

(6)A land registrar shall regard a document which by virtue of subsection (4) is not chargeable to stamp duty by virtue of subsection (1) as not duly stamped unless—

(a)it is stamped as if it were a deed effecting the surrender or renunciation; or

(b)it appears by some stamp ... on it that the full and proper duty chargeable on such a deed has been paid on another document; or^F2

(c)it appears by some stamp ... on it that a lease or agreement falling within subsection (3) has been duly stamped; or^F2

(d)the land registrar is aware of a document falling within subsection (5) which has been duly stamped.

(7)The documents which evidence the surrender or renunciation of a lease shall be taken to include an application, in consequence of the surrender or renunciation of the lease, for—

(a)the making in a land register, or

(b)the removal from a land register,

of an entry relating to the lease.

(8)In this section—“land register"—in relation to England and Wales, means the register kept under section 1 of the Land Registration Act 2002;in relation to Scotland, means the Land Register of Scotland or the General Register of Sasines;in relation to Northern Ireland, means the register maintained under section 10 of the Land Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 1970;“land registrar"—in relation to England and Wales, means the Chief Land Registrar or any other officer of Her Majesty’s Land Registry exercising functions of the Chief Land Registrar;in relation to Scotland, means the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland;in relation to Northern Ireland, means the Registrar of Titles or any other official of the Land Registry exercising functions of the Registrar of Titles.^F3

(9)This section shall be construed as one with the Stamp Act 1891.

(10)This section applies to documents relating to the surrender or renunciation of a lease after the day on which this Act is passed.