Right to buy - advice needed please!

Sarah1962

I want to buy my council flat in order to (eventually) sell it to someone else. The reason being: my partner (not on the tenancy) has a big enough salary to buy where we want to live, but not where we are. Rather than just handing the keys back, I want to find a way to buy the property with the person who owns the flat above me. He has always wanted my flat. Does anyone know if it's possible to get a joint mortgage with another person on a RTB mortgage? Even if that person is not a co-tenant?
The idea is that when the three years are up, he buys me out of my share and takes on the mortgage completely.
I should say that he will be making all the mortgage payments from the start as I have no income.
Many thanks.

Boozer

So you live rent free for 3 years while he pays the mortgage, is that what you hope to gain from this?? and then he takes it over and has got himself a cheap house while scamming the local council???

Fire_Fox

If you are the only tenant you are the only person who has the right to buy: if you have no income you won't be able to raise a mortgage so this idea is a non-starter. Is there a reason you can't get a job? Have you considered that you will also be liable for service charges and major works as leaseholder? With council properties these can run to the thousands, even tens of thousands occasionally.

Sarah1962

I don't intend to scam anybody, Boozer, and I asked for advice, not ill-informed moral judgements.

I want to exercise my perfectly legal right to buy along with another person. What happens after we get a mortgage is none of anyone's business as long as I don't sell the property for three years.
I live in a conversion so when the two flats are bought, the freehold can be bought too which might help my neighbour from being royally ripped off by the council.

Boozer

Sarah1962 wrote: »

I want to exercise my perfectly legal right to buy along with another person. .

But you do not have the perfectly legal right to buy with another person, you have the right to buy yourself, and from the post it is quite obvious that he is buying this property and not you, you will stay there for the absolute minimum time until it can be transferred to him.

I am sorry if my post offended you in any way, but this is an open board in which we can all express our views, those were my views.

Fire_Fox

Sarah1962 wrote: »

I don't intend to scam anybody, Boozer, and I asked for advice, not ill-informed moral judgements.

I want to exercise my perfectly legal right to buy along with another person. What happens after we get a mortgage is none of anyone's business as long as I don't sell the property for three years.
I live in a conversion so when the two flats are bought, the freehold can be bought too which might help my neighbour from being royally ripped off by the council.

You don't have a legal right to buy with another person, only the tenant has the right to buy their council property. You only have the right to buy the freehold if the superior landlord wants to sell it, are you getting confused with the right to manage which is enforceable?

And grow up: council staff aren't out to rip anyone off, the money doesn't even go into their pockets! Councils have a legal duty of care to their tenants to maintain and sometimes upgrade properties. Given that you have no income I rather suspect your comment is a case of biting the hand that feeds you ...

Sarah1962

@Firefox
"And grow up: council staff aren't out to rip anyone off, the money doesn't even go into their pockets! Councils have a legal duty of care to their tenants to maintain and sometimes upgrade properties."

Do you think that £1500 is a lot of money to paint 5 windows, exterior only? That's what my local council charged the leaseholder upstairs.
That's my idea of a ripoff.

I asked about this situation because I used to get sent leaflets all the time by companies who offered to help me take up the right to buy. The details weren't explained on the leaflets but the idea was that the tenant would put in for the right to buy, but the money would be put up by the company. These schemes were widely advertised and they were legal. If a company can do this, why not another individual?

If anyone knows anything about this and isn't either a local council stooge, or an envy-ridden loser, I would be grateful for the information on how it is done.

I do have an income, but it is very erratic and hard to show paperwork for.

Nosht

When you receive the Application Form there will be a question about whether you are the sole purchaser or not. Just answer accordingly & you will have no further problems.

Regards,

N.

Nosht

Sarah1962 wrote: »

@Firefox
"Do you think that £1500 is a lot of money to paint 5 windows, exterior only? That's what my local council charged the leaseholder upstairs.
That's my idea of a ripoff.

In December I had my entire house (4 rooms, 6 windows) painted for that, including cost of paint. :eek:

Regards,

N.

Fire_Fox

Sarah1962 wrote: »

@Firefox
Do you think that £1500 is a lot of money to paint 5 windows, exterior only? That's what my local council charged the leaseholder upstairs.
That's my idea of a ripoff.

"That's [your] idea of a rip off" because neither you nor your neighbour understands the rights and responsibilities of a leaseholder. Repairs or maintenance costing over £250 per unit are major works; your neighbour will have been send a formal consultation document and given the opportunity to comment, object and put forward his own preferred contractor. There are actually two or three stages to a section 21 notice.

There is plenty of legislation in place to protect leaseholders from being "ripped off'" - I say this as someone who has spent three years in dispute with a private sector management company who has repeatedly charged for work that was simply not carried out, failed to consult over major works (£1100 repairing the fire escape), failed to consult over long term agreements, ignored repeated requests for documents we are legally entitled to and refused to investigate fraudulent invoices!

Boozer

I just spent some time googling to see what i could find for you and i found this:

Can someone else buy with me?

Yes, anyone who is a joint tenant with you can buy with you. Also, other members of your family who have lived with you for the last 12 months and it is their only or principle home can buy with you.

Obviously this is for one council and others may have different answers to the question, so without knowing where you are living, we can only guess.

good luck with it anyway,

Signed: Envy ridden loser