Developer Shared Equity Scheme

thomasdog

Good evening,

I am hoping somebody will be able to give me some guidance.

5 years ago I bought a new build through a special sharedequity scheme from a developer. I have a 1 first charge with a mortgage for 75%of the property and the developer has a second charge against it (25%). Formultiple reasons I now want to move out and rent this property, however thedeveloper is being extremely difficult.

I obtained approval from the freeholder to rent theproperty, and my mortgage provider is happy to give me consent to let, but inorder to grant this consent they need to see approval from the developer. Ihave spent the last 9 weeks trying to obtain approval from the developerwithout success. All communications with the developer took place over thephone, they told me that they would grant me approval if I rented the propertythrough a letting agent on a full management contract and bought full landlordinsurance. I contacted a letting agent and arranged a contract and insurancemeeting these requirements, I sent the relevant documents to the developer andafter many days I rang them to check on the status of the approval. I was toldthat they were still not sure whether to grant approval based on the fact thatthey have a huge overdraft with their bank and they said they want me to sellthe property so they can get their 25% equity back. I have advised them that Ihave tried to sell this property twice before (written evidence available) butthe offers I received were below the purchase price. At this point I was askedto give them time to consider my application, time went by and when I chasedthis again I was told the same thing and this went on for weeks. As theproperty market seems to be improving, I proposed to the developer that if theygive me approval to rent the property for a year, I would put the property upfor sale after that year expires and they would get their 25% back. They saidthat it sounded like a good proposal and that I would receive a letter throughthe post with their approval, the letter never came through, so I called up andmy contact said that they are still thinking about it...and hanged up on me.

I feel that they are not giving me any choices, is there areason why they are not declining my application/request in writing? They won’tallow me to rent the property out and the property won’t sell. Just to confirm,this is a special scheme, I am not paying rent or anything else on the 25% thedeveloper owns, the contract stipulates that I need to buy the remaining 25% by2019 or sell the property and give the developer their share by that date.

Thank you very much,

Mary

LeighBelle

They sound very unprofessional.

Is there someone higher up (i.e a head office) you can speak to, and is it possible to visit them at a physical address?

Also I'm wondering if it might be better to put the request in writing so there is evidence of what's been talked and agreed? Some people have a tendency to forget what they agreed to do on the phone.

Lastly, it might also be worth consulting any documentation you received when you bought the property. I imagine they will have been rules and conditions about renting or selling the property etc. Find out what is says, and refer the relevant information to the Developer.

Good luck.