Council House Buying

matucana

We have been offered a ridiculously low price to buy our council house, however there is a clause that states that when we want to sell we have to offer it back to the housing association first, who are supposed to offer the market value price. If they're not interested we can then put it on the open market. Does anyone have a view on whether this still constitutes a good buy? We are terrified of being caught out by small print!!

BitterAndTwisted

What constitutes a good buy is whether you are planning to flip the property or live in it long-term.

Even if the HA offer you a price that is slightly less than market-value in ten year's time you are unlikely to have lost much money, if any at all. It's not like they will be putting you in negative equity or anything like that, is there?

sharkbait556

We did the same, ours was council owned before we bought it.

We emailed offering the property back to them they stated the we are not interested in buying the property back and said we could sell on the open market.

sirmosh

This is just a guess, but I think it's unlikely they'd want it at market value any way.

carefullycautious

It can't be a council house if a housing association own it? Also housing associations stopped selling their stock some time ago.

So this does not make sense.

antrobus

carefullycautious wrote: »

It can't be a council house if a housing association own it? Also housing associations stopped selling their stock some time ago.

So this does not make sense.

I'd presume that the OP lives in a house that used to be a 'council house' but that the Local Authority concerned has since transferred its stock to a Housing Association.

Technically speaking, LA tenants have a Right to Buy, HA tenants have a Right to Acquire. Under RTA it appears that "If you sell your home within 10 years of buying it through Right to Acquire, you must first offer it to your old landlord. The property should be sold at the full market price agreed between you and the landlord. If you can’t agree, a district valuer will say how much your home is worth and set the price. You won’t have to pay for their valuation. If the landlord doesn’t agree to buy your home within 8 weeks, you can sell it to anyone."

https://www.gov.uk/right-to-acquire-buying-housing-association-home/selling-your-home

BitterAndTwisted

It's possibly an ex-council property hived off to an ALMO. Buy it. Live in it for five years to avoid having to re-pay any of the discount. Whatever they offer you for it, if indeed they do want to buy it back from you means you should be quids in. About seventy-five thousand of them.

matucana

Thankyou for all your comments - it's such a big commitment we wanted to be sure there were no hidden catches...
And yes, I was a council tenant until the house was transferred to the housing association so I have kept my right to buy.:)