Shared ownership

Rijndael

Hi guys

I am a first time buyer and have been reading up on shared ownership. It appears quite promising but being the cynical type I cannot help but thinking that there are some 'gotchas' in this type of agreement.

Has anyone purchased a house via shared ownership ? And once you have purchased the house does it become a freehold or a leasehold ?

chanz4

the rent you pay on top, hard to sell after, help to buy is a better deal

kingstreet

It's leasehold, both before and after you buy it.

If you staircase up to 100% ownership, it will probably become freehold if it's a house, remaining leasehold if a flat.

Tiffany_Aching

chanz4 wrote: »

the rent you pay on top, hard to sell after, help to buy is a better deal

We actually found ours quite easy to sell on - granted this was a couple of years back.

What I disliked about shared ownership was that if anything went wrong, it was up to us to pay in full - no shared payment for plumbers and such. However, if we had paid to improve the property, we would have only received half the increased value.

Still, was aware of that and went into it still as it was the best property we could afford at that time.

We also had to have written permission if we wanted to do anything home owners wouldn't think twice about, such as getting a dog or putting up a fence - it often felt more like we were only renting rather than shared.

grifferz

Shared ownership schemes vary wildly and some people have been badly burnt by them.

Have you considered instead the government's Help to Buy scheme which right now is for new builds but from next January would be for all properties? It can bring your deposit up to 20% as long as you have at least 5%.

I'm not 100% sure it's a great idea but on the face of it it seems better than the best shared ownership scheme.

Here's a link to a thread containing some of the pitfalls of shared ownership schemes. Try to look past the gibbering fanaticism of certain posters and just take in the first hand stories.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=3177256