SDLTM10025 - Introduction: Scope of stamp duty land tax on leases: Pre- implementation leases

Only a lease that is expressly granted, or is treated as having been granted, for the first time on or after 1 December 2003 can be chargeable to stamp duty land tax (SDLT).

Transactions which are treated as grants of a new lease for SDLT purposes include:

• renewal
• extension and
• variation of a lease (amounting to surrender and regrant (refer to SDLTM14120)
• variation of a pre-SDLT lease within the first five years of the term (treated as the grant of a new lease for consideration equal to the increase in rent) (refer to SDLTM14090)

Where the effective date of these transactions is on or after 1 December 2003, they are subject to the SDLT provisions. Refer to SDLTM10045 for further details.

A lease will not be subject to SDLT if it was granted before 1 December 2003 but continues after that date because it:

• continues by operation of law e.g. under the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954
• is a statutory periodic lease (e.g. assured shorthold tenancy) which continues after the expiration of the fixed term or
• is otherwise held over.