Equity Query on 'Extended' Shared Ownership House

phoenix76_2

Can anyone offer help/advice?

I am about to put my shared ownership house up for sale but have come across a problem.....

I bought the house in 2005 as a 50% share and as my family grew I had a need for additional space. Not being able to move at the time, I opted to have the loft converted in 2007 and gained all the necessary permissions from the HA and planning consents/building regs etc.

The issue that I have now is that having approached the HA regarding the proposed sale, they have advised that they will get 50% of any increased value from this loft conversion when it is sold (even though I paid for whole thing) and despite me being told originally that any value that I added to the house would be reflected in the valuation if I ever sold or staircased.

The HA, who were extremely unhelpful on the phone, advised that they have no records of any communication I had with them at the time due to the time that has lapsed now and insist that I would have had a pack detailing these arrangements when I originally purchased. I don't have the original welcome pack anymore, however, the letter from the HA acknowledging my request to alter/improve my property makes no reference to this, neither does the written permission that the HA sent upon receipt of the requested admin fee. I have also looked at my lease and cannot find anything relating to this in here.

There has been a house round the corner from me that is exactly like mine but a mid terrace (without the loft conversion) that has sold in the last couple of weeks for £105K for the 50% share. Estate agents have informed me that a reliable 'market value' with the loft conversion is £120K as there are 4 bed SO properties on the estate selling for this amount already and any reason for selling any less than this would be hard to justify.

Can anyone help or give me advice regarding this and where I actually stand before I proceed as it is quite a significant amount of money to have to write off.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

richardw

Were the deeds and/or under lease updated to include the loft conversion as part of the demise?

cattie

I've always been under the impression that it was standard procedure with SO that any improvements you made to property that increased the value, would benefit both vendor & HA when it came to selling.

I've never heard of a vendor who has less than a 100% share being able to retain the whole of the increase in value.

You mustn't think of this as written off money, you benefited from the additional space that you needed & will still be getting more for your house than if the loft hadn't been converted by the sound of it.

Loft conversions don't always recoup the outlay, especially if the house has had a loft conversion relatively recently.

The difference between a house with an additional bedroom in the loft, versus one purpose built with the same amount of bedrooms is that the converted one no longer has a nice large loft for storage, so selling prices can't really be compared.

phoenix76_2

richardw wrote: »

Were the deeds and/or under lease updated to include the loft conversion as part of the demise?

No, I haven't amended anything on the deeds or the lease. I just followed the procedures with obtaining necessary consents etc

Is this something I should have done?

phoenix76_2

Thanks Cattie,

I think I may have been slightly naieve with this whole venture!

I do understand what you are saying about changing the way I think, however, it's still a bitter pill to swallow _pale_

I can only hope that the independant surveyors valuation is not too far from the Estate Agents 'reliable market value'.