Selling your home
If you decide to sell your share of your home, we will usually tell you who you must sell to. The basic stages involved in selling most shared ownership homes are as follows.
We will arrange for a qualified independent valuer to make an open market valuation of your property. You must pay for the valuation. We will also inform you of any administrative fee at this stage.
When the valuation has been made and you have confirmed that you want to sell, we will try to find a buyer for your share of the property from applicants held on our database. We have 8 weeks to find a buyer to make an offer. Your lease gives us the right to have the opportunity to find a buyer for your share for a specific period. We have a long list of people who qualify for this type of housing, and we will keep records of a number of suitable buyers (depending on price, size and location).
You must arrange for the buyer to view your home.
The buyer must pay the full purchase price of the share you are selling in your home (the current open market valuation). If you accept their offer we will instruct solicitors and ask you to tell your solicitors about the sale.
You will have to pay a fee for disbursements to cover part of our legal fees when the sale goes through and an administration fee. The office will be able to advise of this. When the sale goes through to completion we will ask for rent and service charges to be paid up to the completion date. If we fail to find you an acceptable buyer within the period given in the lease, you are free to sell your home privately.If you staircase to 100% equity and wish to sell the property within 21 years following staircasing to 100% you must first serve written notice to us offering us first refusal to:
- buy back the property or
- nominate another Housing Association to buy the property to secure the property for affordable housing use.
We have 6 weeks to decide whether to buy back the property. If we choose not to buy back the property you may sell the property on the open market.
If you are considering selling, you should follow the procedure set out in our guide; you can get this by contacting Customer Services on 08458 50 60 61. We will be available to advise you regarding the process and our policy regarding the buy back option.