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Buy your rented home - The right to Shared Ownership
What is Right to Shared Ownership?
Offered under Government’s Right to Shared Ownership Scheme – buying a share of your rented home. The Right to Shared Ownership scheme allows some tenants in England to buy a share of their rented home on Shared Ownership terms. You can buy a share of between 10% and 75% of your home’s full market value.
You can apply to buy a share of your home if your property is eligible, and you meet the eligibility criteria. For full details see the Right to Shared Ownership page on the government website.
Do you live in a home where the Right to Shared Ownership applies?
Property eligibility for the Right to Shared Ownership scheme will only apply if funded by a specific grant. To check the property eligibility, you will need to contact your neighbourhood coach. If you're not sure who your neighbourhood coach is, or not sure how to contact them, you can do so by checking here.
Are you eligible for Right to Shared Ownership?
You could be eligible for the Right to Shared Ownership if you:
- live in a home where the Right to Shared Ownership applies;
- hold an un-demoted secure tenancy, an assured tenancy (including an assured short hold tenancy), or a Localism Act fixed-term tenancy (either an assured short hold tenancy or a flexible secure tenancy with a fixed term of a minimum of two years);
- have lived in your current home for at least 12 months;
- have been a tenant of social or affordable housing for at least three years (this need not have been with Bromford, or for a continuous period);
- are not in rent arrears;
- are not subject to a court order for the possession of your home;
- are not subject to bankruptcy proceedings or unfulfilled credit arrangements;
- are not subject to legal proceedings e.g. a notice of seeking possession has been served ;
- are not subject to legal proceedings on the grounds of anti-social behaviour;
- satisfy all standard eligibility criteria for the Shared Ownership scheme including its income requirements (currently a gross annual household income of £80,000 or less outside of London, or £90,000 or less in London) and do not already own a property;
- are otherwise unable to purchase a home suitable to meet your housing needs on the open market; and
- satisfy immigration requirements.
Applying for Right to Shared Ownership
If you wish to buy your home on a Shared Ownership basis during this tenancy then you must comply with the following steps:
You must notify us in writing that you want to buy a share of your home on a Shared Ownership basis. As soon as practicable after receipt of your notice, and in any event within 4 weeks, we will write to you and confirm whether your home is or remains eligible for the Right to Shared Ownership scheme.
If your home is eligible, you must then complete the prescribed form of Right to Shared Ownership application. More information on this can be found on the government website here. Once you have completed the government form, fill and submit the buy your rented home form here.
We will then check your application and notify you whether you are eligible. We will do so as soon as practicable, but this could take between 8 and 12 weeks.
If we inform you are not eligible, we will tell you why. We will also tell you how you can appeal that decision.
If you are eligible we will notify you and set up a meeting with you which you must attend.
In the meeting we will explain to you how shared ownership works and will provide you with key information documents about shared ownership including an estimate of the value of your home.
In the meeting, we will also provide you with details of a mortgage or financial adviser. However, you are free to choose your own adviser.
They will check your income and outgoings. This is called an ‘affordability assessment’. When the adviser confirms what size of share you can afford to buy, you should notify us.
After you have confirmed you can afford to apply, we will obtain an independent valuation of your home. This may be more or less than our estimated value of your home. A valuation can take a further 6-8 weeks.
If you disagree with the official valuation, you can pay to have a second independent valuation done. You must do this within 3 months of the date you got your landlord’s valuation.
You’ll need to find a legal professional to handle the process of buying a share of the property.
You can use a solicitor or a licensed conveyancer. They’ll explain the terms of your shared ownership lease and check the conditions of your mortgage offer, if you have one.
Once the value of your home is agreed, we will give you an offer notice. The offer notice tells you:
- how much your home is worth;
- the size of the share you are buying and how much it will cost;
- how much rent you’ll pay;
- the costs after you buy your share; and
- how long the lease will be.
You must tell us that you want to accept the offer. You must do this within 4 weeks of the date you got your offer notice.
If you decide not to accept the offer, you should tell us. You can continue to rent your home as a tenant.
After you have accepted the offer, we will proceed to sell you your share. We will tell you about the period within which you must complete.
Your conveyancer will act for you in this respect, and the process involved includes:
- checking your mortgage offer;
- exchanging contracts;
- completing the sale.
Buy your rented home - 'the right to buy'
You may be eligible to purchase your Bromford home through the right to buy scheme.
Buy your rented home - The 'right to acquire'
Information about buying your home from Bromford through 'the right to acquire' scheme.