Angiebabes, on the first & second transaction the developer paid any capital gains & my companies accounts checked this out with HMRC, also I have since had a dispute with HMRC over company pension tax manly because 2 governments departments would not talk to each other, after sending them the documents that we had paid the tax, they sent us a full apology.

On the second property yes we had to pay the 3% retention which our lady agreed a fee of £4170.00.

Not everything is black & white over there, our friends sold one of their apartments & found out they had not paid any ebe tax for 18 years, but the government were only allowed to claim back the last 5 years, we were also told by a resident many years ago, never pay the government tax unless you are sure you owe it because you will never get it back. 

Over 2 decades ago, funnily I was 20 years younger then. (stupid post )

Angiebabes we were lucky on both occaisions the developer was desperate to repurchase both the apartments, the first one he picked up all the taxes & costs, the second one, our friends who owned an Est agency had a very smart lady & it cost us about 5K tax & fees, we thought not bad on a 160k sale & she managed to get some of it back about 1k, unfortunately our friends have sold the agency & moved to the mainland.

But you are personally liable for capital gains tax in UK! Irrespective of what the developer paid, if HMRC catch up with you, you’ll have to pay it. The estate agent you mention also didn’t cover your capital gains tax, just the retention of 3%. If you get caught you’ll have to pay up.

Give it a few years, but I have no doubt, once thinks get on course and we are fully trading as an independent sovereign nation again, the pound will be trading back near it's previous dizzy heights!

The best rate after the crash in 2008 was about 1.45 in 2015.