John Smith v The Commissioners for HMRC

Facts

On 14 December 2023 the appellant, John Smith, bought Huntbourne for £2,600,000. Huntbourne is an estate of about 3 acres near Tenterden in Kent, held under a single Land Registry title. It comprises an eight-bedroomed main house and, over 200 feet away across a stream, a single-storey timber building that the sales brochure described as the "pool house". That building (the Annexe) opens through french doors directly onto the tiled surround of the swimming pool. It contains a main room with substantial kitchen facilities, a plant room, a sauna room, a shower room and a room with a lavatory and sink. It has its own lockable entrances, driveway and gate from a public road, parking, oil-fired underfloor heating, stop tap and fuse board. It shares its council tax rating, postal address, electricity meter and water meter with the main house. At completion it was not being used as a single dwelling. The appellant filed his SDLT return on 18 December 2023 and later claimed Multiple Dwellings Relief on the basis that Huntbourne comprised two dwellings. HMRC considered that Huntbourne was a single dwelling and, by a closure notice of 21 February 2025, rejected the claim. The SDLT due was £220,500 if the relief applied and £301,250 if it did not, a difference of £80,750. The appellant appealed to the First-tier Tribunal.