Selling house to council

floatylight

Hi
does anyone know if you can sell your house to the local council or housing association and still remain living in it?

Thanks

silvercar

Doubtful. You could ask but I can't see where they gain?

zone

It's unlikely they would be interested in buying. But you could contact your council's housing department and ask them.. you never know. If its a decent sized house they maybe interested in buying it from you cheap.

May i ask the reason for doing this rather than selling privately?

whathavewedone

Some boroughs are doing this but there are various provisos - I think you have to be in debt, have equity in your house, be prepared to submit to debt counselling and be the type of person more suited to social housing anyway - whatever that means.

Reading between the lines I think this is aimed at people who bought under the RTB scheme, are not in negative equity but have run up oodles of debt in other ways, cars, credit cards, catalogues etc. I also think it helps if you are elderly or have children.

Anyway, from what I've read about it, it's not a way out for people who are in negative equity. Have a look at Shelter's website though I think they might have some details on the schemes available for struggling homeowners.