Buying a formerly shared-ownership property (and checking that it HAS been paid off!)

emilygilmore

Hi,

I am in the process of buying a former shared-ownership house and I'm worried that the seller hasn't paid off the rented part. She died and a friend of hers is selling for her, who doesn't know all the details or have relevant documents, additionally she is not british (and doesn't live here) so isn't familiar with shared ownership.

My solicitor doesn't seem to know much about shared ownership and I'm worried that I'll end up paying full price to own only half a house. Does anyone know how to research this kind of thing? I have the freehold document from the land registry, which mentions a leasehold. I also have some leasehold papers from when the house was built, with parts for 'stepping' (i assume this means purchasing extra bits) which are not filled in, but are also in the original owner's name from years ago so hopefully this isn't a totally bad sign.

Please help! I would love to be able to get a good night's sleep again ...

HappyMJ

Get another solicitor....

emilygilmore

Yeah maybe.. I like her apart from that though, she's doing my sale as well which is fine.

I've rung the housing association on the leasehold and they don't know about it, but they do have other houses in that row listed, so that might be a good sign?

Richard_Webster

My solicitor doesn't seem to know much about shared ownership

Tell him that if he can't sort it out then you will use someone who does!

This is in England or Wales is it?

Assuming it is then your solicitors can check who the freeholder is by looking at the freehold title which can be obtained form the Land Registry and should be provided by the seller's solicitors. The seller's name should be on the leasehold title and the seller's friend has presumably obtained a grant or probate/administration so she can sell.

If the Housing Association still owns the freehold then chances are that the dead person had not acquired 100%. if that is the case the lease needs to be looked at because it may only be possible to sell the share the dead person owned to nominees of the HA unless HA can't find anyone to buy after a few months. Modern SO leases have booby traps in which prevent "back to back" purchases of freehold/remaining percentage from HA and immediate sale of freehold to a third party. The seller has to have owned the 100% for 3 months - so your solicitor would also need to check that point.

If you phone HA they often don't have people who really understand the intricacies of SO and some rely on their solicitors to tell them what to do - so you can easily get a don't know type attitude from people that answer the phone at a HA.