Mudan: key characteristics of a dwelling

The band Madness painted the image of a terraced house with the tired housewife the grown-up kids playing and the father wearing his Sunday best. In my mind the house probably hadn’t been redecorated for decades the wiring and plumbing functioned but needed updating there might have been a cracked window and a pipe gently leaking in the cellar but it was their family home.

In essence that is what the Court of Appeal recently found in the case of Amarjeet and Tajinder Mudan v CRC [2025] EWCA Civ 799 – that just because a family (with young children unlike the teenagers in the Madness song) wouldn’t feel comfortable moving in straight away it doesn’t stop the property from being a dwelling and residential rates of SDLT as augmented by (where appropriate) the higher rates for additional dwellings (HRAD) 5% surcharge and non-resident SDLT (NRSDLT)...