Appealing against section 106 agreement

pbjackson

My son bought an 'affordable house' 7 years ago but now wants to sell. The agreement says he has to offer first to local residents of the village who fullfill the criteria, failing that it then can go out to the Local Authority Area. At present no one has come forward who satisfies the criteria laid down in the agreement, and the Council say he can appeal to the Authority to have the agreement cancelled so he can sell the house, at market value (in place of 75% of market value). Has anyone been down this road and is so what happened ?
The council are saying they will not authorise a sale that doesn't fit the criteria...but now my son has a family he is desperate to move to a bigger house...

theartfullodger

Let me Google that for you...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=appeal+%22section+106%22

mostlycheerful

Got any friends of friends who know the people involved in administering this? Maybe worth having some coffee mornings and dinner parties and weekend parties and dos and such like and reel them in for some friendly chats. Might roll over if asked nicely or tweeked.

dell12

I would have thought if he's waited the stated time (there is probably one in the agreement somewhere) and has actively been marketing the house (using estate agents etc) he'd have no problem at all in successfully appealing the decision.

samhuzz

That doesn't sound very fair, your son bought it for 75% of its value and will get to sell it for 100% of its value! Am I correct?

theartfullodger

samhuzz wrote: »

That doesn't sound very fair, your son bought it for 75% of its value and will get to sell it for 100% of its value! Am I correct?

Yup, and I wonder who paid for the other 25%??? Yup, we did....

dell12

theartfullodger wrote: »

Yup, and I wonder who paid for the other 25%??? Yup, we did....

True, but if there's no-one to buy it, and council's don't have any money to buy it back from him i'm not sure what else he can do....

Also as the house was bought 7 years ago it's not as if he's just bought it, only to sell in on a few months later simply to make a quick buck!

There was always going to be problems like this once Council Housing started to be sold off.

theartfullodger

dell12 wrote: »

There was always going to be problems like this once Council Housing started to be sold off.

That woman, Thatcher...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_buy

Homersimpson

Surely if he sells it for 100% then the local authority have a charge on it for 25% of its value? In which case once sold the councils inital investment is repaid to them.

If they don't have this then someone at the council should get the sack!

Caerdragon

Homersimpson wrote: »

Surely if he sells it for 100% then the local authority have a charge on it for 25% of its value? In which case once sold the councils inital investment is repaid to them.

If they don't have this then someone at the council should get the sack!

Section 106 agreements work a bit differently, there is a covenant on the property restricting the resale price, with the council having final say. It is unlikely that the house has ever been sold for its full market value, the original builder usually sells for the reduced price at new build.

Unfortunately as Dell12 says the OP's son will probably have to wait for the time stated in the agreement to lapse before he'll be able to sell on the open market. On most of the ones I've seen that's been at least 12 months...

sshaw101

He wont be able to sell for 100%, if he brought for 75% of the market value he would have to sell for 75% of the market value.

Unfortunately getting PP for developments like this the affordable housing has to be made available to the local community or people with ties to the town/village.