KatieLou Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 Hi All, I am just after a little bit of advice about selling our UK house from here Australia. We moved out here in June 2015 and let our house out a couple of months beforehand. We have received notice from the tenants that they will be leaving the property at the begginning of April so I am looking into our options. They havent looked after it very well and they seemed to be quite nieve about the whole thing, like requesting help for changing light bulbs and stuff! Anyway it just seemed to be alot of effort constantly having to do things on the house as a result of their neglect. I hoped that when we left it would pretty much take care of itself money wise and that the management agent would deal with anything else, but its not been that easy. My questions are: Has anyone sold the home while hear in Aus? Did you have to fly home to sign contracts? Are there any other things to consider? We are on 457 visa's so we dont decalre our UK income here in Australia, we are are aware that once we are granted PR we will have to get the house valued and declare all income here. Any advice would be great. Thanks KatieLou Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pegg Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 our friends have just sold there house in UK … theve been in Oz for 10 years now , big relief for them its sold. But no, they didnt go back - all sorted be solicitors/agents etc good luck with sale ;o) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatieLou Posted February 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 Thanks @pegg I was hoping we could get out of flying home to finalise. It seemed a good idea at the time to rent it out but it just becomes such an effort constantly back and forth to the agent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raychelsb Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 I posted a similar thread last week, didn't get any replies so hopefully you will have more luck, and I may learn something too My main concern is insurance for an empty property which seems expensive and not many place offer it. Plus we will be paying council tax for a unused house! We will also have to pay capital gains tax, as we own a house here too. And we too declare everything on our tax returns here in Aus as we have PR. Good luck with the whole process. Ours goes up for sale next week when our tenants move out and I am dreading the whole stressful process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beandownunder Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 I posted a similar thread last week, didn't get any replies so hopefully you will have more luck, and I may learn something too My main concern is insurance for an empty property which seems expensive and not many place offer it. Plus we will be paying council tax for a unused house! We will also have to pay capital gains tax, as we own a house here too. And we too declare everything on our tax returns here in Aus as we have PR. Good luck with the whole process. Ours goes up for sale next week when our tenants move out and I am dreading the whole stressful process. @Raychelsb - sounds like you are settled out there now if you're selling up? glad to hear it, good luck with the sale.... hoping ours sells soon and we will be off too........ xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Druid Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 We have recently just gone through the whole saga, didnt have to fly back to the UK to sign anything, we printed the contract out over here, signed it and couriered it back, got out of paying council tax for an empty house, we applied for yet another exemption and got it, didnt have to pay CGT either, the form is really quite straight forward and ended up paying nothing although we sold for more than we bought, the house had to be valued as at April 15, we completed November 15, so basically the house value at the time was the sale value, therefor nil CG and nil tax, we just have our last UK tax return to do soon to cover any rental income for 2015 and thats our UK affairs done and dusted.......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Druid Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 In Australia you are taxed on your 'World Wide' income, if you are resident in Australia for tax purposes, ie you have a TFN regardless of visa status, you are liable for your UK rental income here in Aus, yes you also have to declare it in the UK and possibly even pay it in the UK! But you still have to declare it here in Aus, due to double taxation agreements between UK & Aus you dont have to pay it again, you may have to pay the difference, it is complicated & I would strongly reccomend you seek out the services of a decent UK & Aus taxation accountant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walkabout Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 Hi, we have recently done it as well, we didnt have to go back, as others have said we printed and signed docs here and couriered them over. Finance wise also as stated we had to have a valuation for April 15, we also had to complete a form to let UK tax know that we had sold, and we will have to declare the sale in both the UK and Aus as part of our tax returns this year. We havent had to pay capital gains in the UK, but we will have to pay something here as we are PR and have bought a house here prior to the sale of the UK place. I have to say that while I am sure it is fine and perfectly possible to do it all yourself, we are paying a UK / Aus accountant to deal with it all for us, they submitted the UK paperwork following the sale and will do our UK and Aus tax returns. Insurance wise we were able to roll over our existing policy to cover us for the time the house was empty, the cover was extremely limited and it looked as if there was little chance of them actually paying out should there have been an issue, but at least it was covered as that was a condition on our mortgage. Council tax - contact the council and tell them that its empty and you should get some sort of a discount on the fees, I think it varies from council to council but you should be able to get something. I have to say though painful at the time of going through it, it is such a relief to have finally sold and not to have to deal with it any more, so hang on in there and it is worth it in the long run! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raychelsb Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 @Raychelsb - sounds like you are settled out there now if you're selling up? glad to hear it, good luck with the sale.... hoping ours sells soon and we will be off too........ xx Hey there Bean, yes we are very settled here thankyou. It's taken a while for me, I was very unsettled for the first 9 - 12 months and it's really only been the last few months that I have felt at home - changing jobs 6 months ago and making friends, plus buying our own place here has played a big part in it all. Good luck to you, hopefully we can meet up soon when you get out here xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raychelsb Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 Thanks Druid and Walkabout, really helpful posts for me, much appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted February 24, 2016 Report Share Posted February 24, 2016 We sold our house while here and it was straight forward.Letters where sent thought the post as they had to see signature,but rest done thought emails.Still had to pay full council tax for empty house. Insurance for empty house we sorted out before we left that was not expensive . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beandownunder Posted February 24, 2016 Report Share Posted February 24, 2016 Hey there Bean, yes we are very settled here thankyou. It's taken a while for me, I was very unsettled for the first 9 - 12 months and it's really only been the last few months that I have felt at home - changing jobs 6 months ago and making friends, plus buying our own place here has played a big part in it all. Good luck to you, hopefully we can meet up soon when you get out here xx we're heading to Brisbane most likely.... xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatieLou Posted February 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2016 In Australia you are taxed on your 'World Wide' income, if you are resident in Australia for tax purposes, ie you have a TFN regardless of visa status, you are liable for your UK rental income here in Aus, yes you also have to declare it in the UK and possibly even pay it in the UK! But you still have to declare it here in Aus, due to double taxation agreements between UK & Aus you dont have to pay it again, you may have to pay the difference, it is complicated & I would strongly reccomend you seek out the services of a decent UK & Aus taxation accountant. Hi Druid, I have had many debates over the tax issue. I sort advice from two tax agents and been informed that on certain visas in this case 457, you do not need to declare UK income. If we decided to apply for PR we have to have our House valued for CGT purposes and declare any rental income from the date PR is granted. I will continue to declare our UK income to HMRC until this happens. Thanks KatieLou Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatieLou Posted February 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2016 Thanks everyone for your replies they have been really helpful. I have spoken to our agents and have agreed to continue renting for the time being. If the next tenant proves to be just as difficult then i think we will sell. I just feel frustrated being here and not able to assess the probelms at the house myself. If we do sell I will appoint the appropriate people to handle the sale. Thank KatieLou Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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