Home / Back to Blighty

Back to Blighty

Your home, money and affairs in the UK while you live abroad: mortgages, renting out or selling your home, capital gains, gifts and inheritances, wills, and moving back.

The guides

Property

UK mortgages from abroad: why the high street says no, and who says yes

Plenty of high-street lenders won't touch a salary paid abroad. Here's why, how specialist expat lending works, and what to have ready before you apply.

Property

Buying UK property from abroad: viewings, ID checks and stamp duty

Buying back home while you live abroad is doable, but stamp duty can bite: the 2% non-resident surcharge and the 5% additional-home rates can stack up.

Property

Keeping your UK home or selling it before you go: rent, leave empty or sell

Let it, leave it empty or sell it? Each choice for your UK home comes with its own costs, rules and tax bill. Here's how they compare before you book the flight.

Property

Remortgaging from abroad: switch, move lender, or go buy-to-let

Your fixed rate is ending and you're overseas. A product transfer with your current lender is usually the easy route, but letting the home changes the picture.

Tax

Renting out your UK home from abroad: the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme

Let your UK home from abroad and HMRC expects 20% of the rent up front, unless you get approval on form NRL1. Here's how the scheme works and what changes in 2027.

Tax

Selling UK property as a non-resident: capital gains tax and the 60-day return

Selling your UK house from abroad? You must report the sale to HMRC within 60 days of completion, even with no tax to pay. Here's how the gain is worked out.

Tax

Gifts and inheritances across borders: what the UK taxes, and what the other country might

The UK taxes the estate, not the heir. Your new country may take the opposite view. How gifts, the seven-year rule and inheritances work when family is split across borders.

Money and investments

UK investments from abroad: what your platform will and won't let you do

Your UK platform account doesn't vanish when you move, but it often freezes in place. What you can keep, what you can't buy, and how the new country taxes UK funds.

Wills and paperwork

Powers of attorney from abroad: letting someone you trust run things back home

Someone has to sign for the house, ring the bank and open the brown envelopes. How lasting powers of attorney work when you live abroad, and their limits.

Wills and paperwork

Wills across two countries: one life, two legal systems and a lot of paperwork

A UK will may be valid abroad and still not do what you meant. Forced heirship, choosing UK law in EU countries, executors abroad and probate back home.

Moving back

Moving back to the UK: the NHS, benefits, school places and home fees

The NHS is usually yours again from day one. Benefits, school places and university fees each have their own residence test, and some are stricter than you'd think.

Health

Health cover between countries: insurance abroad and the NHS on your return

The NHS stops being free when you move abroad and starts again when you move back. In between: insurance, the S1, the GHIC, and a gap during the move nobody warns you about.