shared ownership

blinko

hi everyone i have been given an oppurtunity to buy a shared ownership with my council, i was just wondering if anyone has any experience and could give me some pointers on things to look out for etc

p.s are these all leasehold and if so is there anyway to make them a freehold etc

thanks alot blinko

moomintroll_3

We bought our place on shared ownership 6 and a half years ago. The main thing to watch out for is you'll be responsible for any and all repairs and improvements to the property and you won't get a penny from the council toward them but they absolutely will want to share in any gains made in the property price.

If the council is like the one we bought from you will also have a clause in the leasehold which specifies the frequency at which the outside wood (i.e., the soffits etc) must be painted. They never checked ours AFAIK but the clause was there that we had to keep the property in a certain condition.

With us, we were entitled to staircase to 100% after living here for two years which we did and got a 34% discount on their half; however, as part of this we had to sign a contract which said if we moved within three years we had to pay back either a percentage or all of the discount depending on when we moved. When we bought the property in its entirity the leasehold was converted to a freehold.

HTH - any other Q's please ask and I'll see if I can help.

G

blinko

WOW thanks you have been very helpful you seemed to answer most of them in one fail swoop. i think i will be doing it with notting hill HA which is in london i really wish i knew more than i do at the moment other than im going to be going for it.

yeah im really wanting to get a property to pass onto my kids etc i still have to worry about how to pass it onto them tax free if possible etc i will try to get more info and then find out what i need to do etc

by the wya is it hard to get a mortgage for sharedownership !!?? i got a mse mortgage guide booklet thingy which has been quite helpful too

but yes thank you very much for your help much appreciated thanks

Paul_the_Painter

With regard to mortages, speak to the council, or a local solicitor, a lot of shared ownership places have some funny clauses in the leases that can scare off a lot of mortgage companies, for instance in Milton Keynes the Council shared ownership scheme has an odd clause that actually restricts the security available to a mortgage company, but Abbey National are more than happy to lend against the property. This may have something to do with Abbey's head office being in MK!

With regard to the increase in property prices being reflected in the price oof the councils share, that is only fair after all, they own the other half! and are renting it to you at a cheap rate, however, they are not entitled to any increase in the value of the property due to IMPROVEMENTS you have added. i.e. you take a 50% share in a 2 bed property, then extend it with a garage and a 3rd bed and put a conservatory on the back. You then decide to buy the other 50%, this 50% should be valued as if the house were an unimproved 2 bed, not a 3 bed with conservatory.