Share your shared ownership experiences

comalley2015

Hi everyone,


Just wanted to pick a few brains re Shared Ownership. My wife owns 50% of the property we live in and we are looking to staircase to purchase the other 50% of the property.


The further staircasing application is solely in her name (as we were not together when the first 50% was purchased. I presume we can still apply for the mortgage jointly, but the property as such would be entirely in her name.


Any advice in relation to this matter would be gratefully received.


Regards



COM

Koomess23

This is my 1st time posting on any forum.
I wanted to share my positive experience with shared ownership. My husband & I bought a 50% share in a 2 bed ground floor maisonette 2 years ago. We live in Aylesbury, Bucks & although we both earn fairly good salaries we couldn't get a mortgage big enough to buy a property fully. Anyway we have sold our property on the 1st viewing for 50k (25k for our share) more than we bought it for only 2 years ago. We put only 4k down in deposit originally so we now have just over 30k to move on to our next property.
The selling part was easy but it has been slow going since & we are due to complete in a few weeks. Our housing association didn't want to try & sell it themselves & we were able to market it with an estate agent straight away.
Our rent & svc charge has increased by a total of £10 per month in the 2 years.
I think as long as you do your research & are aware of potential problems shared ownership is a good option for some.

madlyn

I have been in my shared ownership house for nearly 10 years.
I am currently buying a 25% share but I can only purchase a total of 70% as it is part of a rural scheme and the house is around 100 years old.
I did look into buying more of a share but I later changed my mind so I am currently making over payments on my mortgage instead.
My mortgage and rent are around £440.00 a month with no service charge. doing this has worked well for me and I would recommend it.

KS53

I am a single working mum and 16 years ago I could only just afford a shared ownership property as I did not qualify for Council because I earned too much apparently. My rent and mortgage together are less than what you would now pay to rent a flat and I have a 2 bed semi which is lovely. Not much interaction from the Landlord except when wanting more money which is fine when they do the work. My major bugbear though is that there are a few of us in a cul de sac, surrounded by tenants who get all repairs undertaken without even asking. This year they have all had new windows, doors, kitchen floors and worktops and now they are all having new fencing outside. Some of these people are druggies who don't give a damn about their property and will damage it all within a couple of months in the knowledge they will get it repaired free of charge. They have a better quality of life than me who is trying desperately to keep a roof over my head by having to pay for everything myself. In the knowledge that unfortunately when I sell, Knightstone Housing (this is Somerset) will take the majority of my profit. Is this justified I ask myself? The cost of huge repairs, i.e. windows, boilers, roofs, doors, floors, kitchen worktops, fences etc far outweighs what we save on monthly rent/mortgage in the long run and I really do look after my property. I put forward to them an idea of having a discounted repair service which we can pay into monthly, they have the interest on the money we pay in, and then they negotiate a discount from contractors to do our repairs. It would work well for all parties but they refused. Martin - if you are able to read this - could we put this idea forward for all Housing Associations? It makes me very very frustrated to see what goes on around me and I have no money for myself at any time because it all goes into keeping my house up together/food on the table, with the constant thought that I will lose out at the end when I do sell because Knightstone profit from my efforts to keep the house going. It is their bricks and mortar at the end of the day and I feel it is unjustified and unwarranted to make us pay for the upkeep of the property and then take EXTRA money at the end of it. Surely there has to be some rights that we have to stop them taking so much. I also feel that I would have problems selling at full price if I staircased because no-one would want to pay full price for a property on a housing estate, especially when our little cul de sac looks so different to rest of the estate because none of us can afford to do all these repairs. Has anyone any experience of taking the Housing Association to Court for having their cake and eating it too?

stark994

Do you need to go through a solicitors to re-mortagage?

SirRobin

djembe_caz wrote: »

There are different types of shared ownership. I'm on the LIFT scheme in Scotland where the government own about 20% of my flat but I don't pay rent on it. I just give them that proportion back when I sell or in 20 years. Or you can buy them out sooner in chunks (you have to pay solicitor fees and revaluation cost).

You could choose any property on the open market and could have one with a spare room as long as it was within their (fairly modest) limits. You did have to put up a deposit but only very small.

It's meant I was able to get on the property ladder and pay an affordable mortgage without being at the mercy of rent rises. I've had no issues so far and still feel grateful to have my own place.

I understand the latest schemes are not so flexible but would still recommend to someone struggling to come up with the vast deposits required.

stark994 wrote: »

Do you need to go through a solicitors to re-mortagage?

My experience with shared ownership has generally been good I bought 50% of a 2 bed terrace house .I believe rent increased by a few quid over the 2 years. With savings and a pay rise I've now increased my mortgage and bought the remaining 50%.

East Midlands housing association were great I didn't get any hassle from them and they were helpful and prompt when it came to Staircasing.it's the Solicitors that have caused me a lot of grief.

Staircasing was expensive and painful nothing like the simple process it was made out to be. Nationwide lied to me about my chosen Solicitors not being on the panel and convinced me to use their incompetent one(O'Neil Patient FYI) I won't go into my tale of woe regarding these Solicitors just avoid them like the plague as I've never seen such ineptitiude.

Staircasing was the equivalent of buying a whole house again
affordability assessments, house evaluations by both bank and housing association etc it cost me about £2000 in legal fees.

Overall my experience has been positive as it helped me achieve ownership of a property I otherwise couldn't afford. They need to simplify the Staircasing process though. Just be aware the legal fees are high and your likely paying over the odds for the privilege of owning a share.

Benzanna

I seem to be hitting a real barrier in my area - I want to buy shared ownership 2 bed in my own name. In future my partner would move in to help with bills etc.
I have a disability so need an extra room for physio equipment, but would also need the extra room for when I start a family (I'm 38)

I've just found out that I will not be likely offered a 2 bed shared ownership. This is a real annoyance as I'm not applying for council housing - I'm buying my own home on a private estate but the council get the final say in who gets the homes.

So frustrating. Has anyone applied as a single applicant for a 2 bed house and got it?

I'm hoping for a stroke of luck!

talksr

DO NOT BUY A CLARION SHARED OWNERSHIP HOME

This is my opinion of buying a Shared Ownership property from Clarion, these are my views and thoughts.
After being cheated on by my partner of 9 years, and really being in a low position, I bought a Clarion shared ownership home so I could move out of the house I had been renting. I had been buying a family home for me and my partner as we were just about to start a family, but obviously, this didn't happen. Shared Ownership was the next best option as I didn't have two incomes in the relationship anymore. 

Clarion lied to me on countless occasions, the buying process was pressured and so stressful. One such lie was "Yes Sir, your garden and property will be fully maintained until the day you get your keys and become the owner".
On the day I got my keys, my property was in a really poor state with grass 2.5 feet high in the back garden.
It has been almost two years and I am still fighting Clarion to sort out the appalling garden they left me with which did not survive the summer. 

I have numerous snagging issues, again, still unresolved. Every time you contact Clarion, you get a different person to talk to, they help you for some time and then just disappear leaving you to start at square one again. 
One of my neighbours has caused me so much stress, allowing visitors to constantly park in my parking bays (which I legally own), allowing her children to climb on my fences, throw litter over, make so much noise and even chuck dog muck in a bag on my doorstep. The same neighbour physically assaulted another neighbour in the street in the summer. During the Easter period, the same neighbour in question decided to get two poultry and dig up the garden to put a pond in. The neigbour's animals have damaged my fence (which I am legally responsible for) in excess of 10 times. Clarion apparently came out to inspect and could find no issues. I have holes so big you can put your fist under my fence where the posts have been dug right down by animals. 
We live in a nice, clean, new housing development. This isn't a farm yard. It has got to be a tenancy breach, but as in the past, Clarion will do nothing.

In addition, numerous children belonging to Clarion's rental properties play in the street constantly in the summer months, kicking balls at our cars, leaving litter everywhere, spitting and refusing to move out of the way when you come or go in your car. Several get plastic bats and when bored thrash them across our garden plants smashing them to pieces. Some of the same children have been left to play outside, unsupervised for hours during the Covid-19 isolation measures. If this isn't irresponsible parenting, what is?

Buying this property was the worst thing I have ever done and I genuinely cannot see a way out of this. I do not think anyone in their right mind would pay what Clarion sold this house to me for, and I feel completely trapped here. Clarion are not enforcing their tenancy agreements with other neighbours such as the one I describe who is not a Shared Ownership tenant but a local authority one. I am having to deal with all of this on my own and after the dreadful relationship issues I dealt with in my personal life, I just don't know how much more of it I can take. I have visited my doctor three times, but other than giving me sleeping tablets, has not been able to help.

I wrote to Clarion six months ago with a formal complaint listing the growing list of problems I have and mentioned the affects it has had on my mental wellbeing and the volume of doctor appointments I have had. 
 I got a copy and paste response in February 2020 which I responded to with a very detailed letter explaining all of the issues and problems I have faced and how none have been addressed. To date, still no reply, but should anyone have to wait six months for a simple reply? 
 
There are times where I would rather be dead than live here and face this, it affects every aspect of my life at times and I cannot cope with much more of it. I had such a future to look forward to two years ago, I was really hoping my first new home would mean I could start a new life and find a new and honest partner to settle down with. Buying this house was the worst thing I have ever done and Clarion's lack of help and interest is an utter disgrace. If anyone with a legal background can help me, please get in touch, I am desperate and really don't know how much longer I can last. 

If you are looking at getting a shared ownership property from Clarion, just don't do it. The properties look so nice, the sales brochures so perfect, give it a week or two of being in and then you start to realise what an awful mistake you have made. 

fletcher1985

I have a shared ownershiphouse. igot it 4 years ago i started with 50% mortaged for2 years then got another 30% now in decemberim going to buy the last 20% its been ideal for me. i have been over paying as muvch as possible to get the last bit this year. then i will do it up and sell it next year. but if you arenot planning on buying it all in the end then dont bother.

[Deleted User]

fletcher1985 said:

I have a shared ownershiphouse. igot it 4 years ago i started with 50% mortaged for2 years then got another 30% now in decemberim going to buy the last 20% its been ideal for me. i have been over paying as muvch as possible to get the last bit this year. then i will do it up and sell it next year. but if you arenot planning on buying it all in the end then dont bother.

Hi, would you be able to provide some advice to someone looking at shared ownership?