House swap within family

Potentially looking at doing a house swap with parents to allow them a smaller property and myself and family a larger family home, anybody have any experience of doing something similar and if so, is it fairly straight forward or a lot of cost/hassle involved?

Would you be changing ownership, or just residency?

The only two considerations for me would be whether a local authority would look at the transfer as a means of taking the larger property out of consideration for care fees etc, and act accordingly, and whether you’d have an inheritance tax issue if they both died within seven years.

Getting some good legal advice on the nitty gritty of you being effectively gifted the difference between yours and their property would be a must for me.

a few years old, but http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4259990.stm

the main issue will of course be stamp duty – you’re still buying a house.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sdlt-transferring-ownership-of-land-or-property

You may need to pay SDLT when all or part of an interest in land or property is transferred to you and you give anything of monetary value in exchange.

Are you an only child? Any other siblings could complicate matters. Oh and yes you will have to pay stamp duty.