Losing our home

Hbeard

Windsorcastle wrote: »

The OP's post is confusing in several ways. First of all, there is no point whatsoever telling us the 'gist' of what L&Q said, rather than what they actually said. That may well be your interpretation of it, but it's not what they said, is it?

Why would L&Q continue to subsidise half of a property with social housing money, for someone who doesn't fit their criteria? Presumably your aunt fulfilled their criteria in some way (as a key worker for example), but their rules have always been very clear that if you cease to fulfil the criteria, then you must repay the equity loan in full. Your aunt is not entitled to pass on the benefit of subsidised housing to whoever she likes. It will also have been crystal clear to your aunt from the original purchase that she is not allowed to sublet because THAT IS NOT WHAT SOCIAL HOUSING IS FOR. She needs to sell the whole property and repay L&Q their equity share or stay put. That's the 2 choices. Why on earth you chose to spend 16k on renovation on a property you don't own, is a mystery to me. What's more, L&Q also require homeowners to obtain their written permission before embarking on significant works, so the fact that your aunt has not done this could also land her in trouble with them.

To say that L&Q are taking your home away from you is overdramatic and inaccurate. It is not YOUR home, it is still your aunt's home, and they aren't taking her home away, they are just refusing to give you what you want!

I don't think you are telling the whole story here. Is it the fact that you were already subletting the property from your aunt before you started this whole 'purchase' process? (That would explain why you were spending money on doing it up and why you are so indignant at losing 'your' home). Because if you were subletting, she is in breach of her contract with L&Q and they could demand immediate repayment of their equity share in that case, and then your aunt is screwed. So be careful getting your solicitor to start ruffling feathers unless you are sure you are squeaky clean in this scenario.

L&Q were not the original owners of this property. It came under their management after a merger with a separate housing association. It was with the original association that my aunt began her mortgage. The property was not awarded through a social housing scheme and because of these facts L&Q do not have any wish or rights to offer it to anyone on their social housing list. Nevertheless, myself and my partner signed up to said list as was initially requested by L&Q (last year) before they told us that wouldn't be necessary. We have been in contact with L&Q since August last year and they have caused multiple issues due to poor communication and lack of knowledge on their own property.

The original correspondence from them to my aunt claimed that due to the nature of how they acquired her property, they have no interest in acquiring it and she could proceed to sell however she wanted. They made no mention of her having to sell 100% at this time. We then agreed a mortgage for 50% and attempted to buy, this was earlier this year (April). With everything approaching completion we ran out of time putting off the renovation that needed doing so we had to proceed with it regardless, although we were confident as L&Q had given the go ahead for my aunt to sell. We have done nothing of a structural nature to the property so permission was not needed anyway, although the timeline we tried to apply this to would of meant that the property was mortgaged to us anyway, had L&Q not dragged their feet and supplied us conflicting information we would of been in here 6 months ago.

At the time I made the original post, L&Q had, after over a year of communication with us, just then informed us that we had to buy 100% for the reasons you have stated. They have had every opportunity to make these points, but they haven't. Both my solicitor, my aunts solicitor and my mortgage adviser have expressed disbelief and disgust at the practice of L&Q and I am now in discussion with a separate solicitor to pursue a legal case against them for costs they have incurred through poor communication and outright lying. After they informed us we had to buy 100%, we managed to secure the amount needed to do so, only for L&Q to then change things again and demand a re evaluation of the property, despite our new mortgage agreement being based off a relevant evaluation from within the last 3 months.

We have never at any point been sub letting this property, we are not paying to live here, we have been here renovating the property in preparation for buying it which at the time the renovations started we had no reason to believe would be an issue. I am indignant as after a year of following this process and doing so much work to renovate the property, to have L&Q move the goal posts at the 11th hour is extremely frustrating. There is no hidden agenda and we are not trying to break any rules. We have tried to do exactly what was required of us by L&Q from the very start of the process, however that has proven near impossible due to L&Q not actually knowing what they are doing.

I appreciate that doing any work before a mortgage was agreed was not the best thing to dso, however our options were very limited and at the time we started we had no reason to believe there would be issue with L&Q having been tiold by them that they had no interest in the property and that my Aunt could proceed as she wised.

carefullycautious

I cant believe that you or your solicitors did not get in writing at the beginning of this fiasco exactly what L&Q (sorry who are L&Q?) were allowing you to do.


If I was buying a shared ownership property I would make sure that the housing association were prepared to rent me their share. Or am I missing something here. There is certain criteria that most housing associations state you must meet.

notanewuser

carefullycautious wrote: »

I cant believe that you or your solicitors did not get in writing at the beginning of this fiasco exactly what L&Q (sorry who are L&Q?) were allowing you to do.

London and Quadrant.

PasturesNew

As I skim read it so far:
A] Aunt bought original 50%, which will have come with some rules.
B] You've now moved in and spent £16k on it.
C] L&Q have said they don't want to buy it and she can sell it.

The confusion probably comes because [A] would have been given those rules, she should have a copy of all her original paperwork. [C] They have said they don't want to buy it, but [A] probably said that the share can't be transferred/resold, so aunt can offer it as a 100% property, or buy the 51-100% herself, but can't pass on the 50% to others (you).

You really need all your aunt's original paperwork, your paperwork and a good solicitor.

Every scheme is different. It sounds as if this one is of the type "Original buyer can buy half (and possibly up to the whole) and when they want to sell they have to sell 100% of it and pass the 50% of the sales price back to the Authority". The Authority have no interest in buying it back, to offer to others on their list in a similar arrangement (which you might not have been qualified to do anyway) - the Authority are just saying "Do what you want with it, but once it's sold we want half the price back for our half"

Every scheme is different - and that's why you won't be able to really get much hope, help, advice here - just our opinions, based on how we interpret your posts and how we have learned that different schemes operate.

notanewuser

Is this likely to get even messier with the mortgage provide pulling their offer if/when they find out you're no longer employed?

Hbeard

carefullycautious wrote: »

I cant believe that you or your solicitors did not get in writing at the beginning of this fiasco exactly what L&Q (sorry who are L&Q?) were allowing you to do.


If I was buying a shared ownership property I would make sure that the housing association were prepared to rent me their share. Or am I missing something here. There is certain criteria that most housing associations state you must meet.

We did have confirmation n writing that my Aunt could do as she pleased with the property because L&Q had no interest in re acquiring it. What they didnt state at that time was the need for her to sell the property at 100%. We made inquiries with L&Q about the cost of the rent and they confirmed the rent would increase, thus giving weight to the belief that they had no issue with what we intended to do.

PasturesNew wrote: »

As I skim read it so far:
A] Aunt bought original 50%, which will have come with some rules.
B] You've now moved in and spent £16k on it.
C] L&Q have said they don't want to buy it and she can sell it.

The confusion probably comes because [A] would have been given those rules, she should have a copy of all her original paperwork. [C] They have said they don't want to buy it, but [A] probably said that the share can't be transferred/resold, so aunt can offer it as a 100% property, or buy the 51-100% herself, but can't pass on the 50% to others (you).

You really need all your aunt's original paperwork, your paperwork and a good solicitor.

Every scheme is different. It sounds as if this one is of the type "Original buyer can buy half (and possibly up to the whole) and when they want to sell they have to sell 100% of it and pass the 50% of the sales price back to the Authority". The Authority have no interest in buying it back, to offer to others on their list in a similar arrangement (which you might not have been qualified to do anyway) - the Authority are just saying "Do what you want with it, but once it's sold we want half the price back for our half"

Every scheme is different - and that's why you won't be able to really get much hope, help, advice here - just our opinions, based on how we interpret your posts and how we have learned that different schemes operate.

My Aunt didn't buy 50% from L&Q, so those rules were not present at the time of her starting the mortgage. The house came into L&Qs ownership after the mortgage had begun. Having been involved with this for over a year now and had MANY dealings with L&Q it comes as no surprise to me that these rules were not clearly outlined to my Aunt at any point. The rules you are talking about are almost exactly what we are having thrown at us now, which I wouldn't have had a problem with had they confirmed that this was the situation when we made our original enquiries a year ago.

So far we have had confirmation that they understand what we wanted to do, then a denial of that confirmation. We have had the wrong lease sent out to us 3 times. Every time we ring to speak to someone at L&Q they have no idea who we are or what we are talking about, despite numerous phone calls. On 2 separate occasions while discussing this property we were told that we couldn't go ahead due to certain technicalities that were later found to be because they were talking about a completely different property.

From the very beginning we have been open with L&Q and done everything they have asked, the problem is that L&Q don't actually know what they are doing and have given us the wrong information for nearly a year. Now, someone has finally taken charge of the matter and they are telling us that everything they have said previously is essentially wrong. For example. We have a hard copy letter that states my Aunt can sell her property. We then have an email 6 months later saying she can sell her property - at 100%. To me, that is despicable

notanewuser wrote: »

Is this likely to get even messier with the mortgage provide pulling their offer if/when they find out you're no longer employed?

The mortgage is with myself and 2 others and has been worked out on their incomes, luckily I have just started a new job so I do have an income now.



Thank you for all the feedback. This is a very unique situation. We have done everything we were advised to do by our Solicitors, Mortgage Adviso and L&Q themselves. We didn't do anything without some kind of written confirmation. The problem is essentially that L&Q gave us an ambiguous confirmation and have now reversed that decision, based on nothing from what I can understand.

GDB2222

All the work you have done. Does that increase the value of L&Q's half of the property?

Hbeard

GDB2222 wrote: »

All the work you have done. Does that increase the value of L&Q's half of the property?

Yes. It has done. It is despicable what L&Q have done.

Update and a summary.

Im going to bullet point the course of events here so its easier to follow;

• Aunt decides to sell house (August 2013)
• I decide to buy house (August 2013)
• I contact L&Q and ask them what I need to do
• They tell me to register on website and fill in forms
• I do this
• L&Q then refuse to talk to me
• L&Q send seller package to my aunt, 5 months after she informs them she wants to sell
• Seller package is completely irrelevant because of how the house came into their ownership
• They inform my aunt that due to how the house came into their ownership, they have no interest in the property and she can sell to whoever she wants, no mention of having to sell 100%
• Aunt agrees to sell to me
• I arrange mortgage for 50% of house (the amount my aunt owns)
• After paying for mortgage agreement fees and renovating the house, we approach payment date and L&Q THEN inform us we have to buy 100% of the house
• We scramble and raise the deposit needed and agree another mortgage for 100%
  
  UPDATE
  
  
• L&Q THEN decide that they want the house re evaluated
• !!!! L&Q
• Evaluation comes back, we can still afford it...just
• With mortgage agreed, 100% purchase agreed with L&Q and my aunt - L&Q THEN decide that its not a job for their resales team and pass it on to their staircasing team (Nov 2014)
• Staircasing team says they need to investigate the file and that the process could take upto 3 months
• !!!! L&Q

Throughout this whole process we have acted on the advice of our solicitors and our mortgage adviser. It honestly sickens me that a company can operate in this way.

Hbeard

I thought I would give this a final update for any who are interested in the conclusion.

After L&Q threw this to different teams it eventually landed back with Resales. Our Solicitor pinned them down on a particular set of instructions and agreements and we finally went ahead with the purchase. We exchanged and finished today, we FINALLY own the house.

I would like to reccomend that people avoid L&Q in the future as they have been truly awful to deal with.

cayennepepper

Thanks for the update and enjoy your new home!