Shared Ownership 'Nomination Period'

MK1987

Hi all,

I currently own 30% of a property in Milton Keynes and Guinness Partnership own the other 70%.

I want to sell the house to fund for a larger property and to get a full mortgage. I spoke to Guinness and they have told me that I have to serve a 'nomination period' of 28 days. This is when they will market the property on their website and select approved purchases to view and potentially make an offer. If after 28 days the house is not sold then I am able to market the property on the open market with an estate agent of my choice - which I want to do.

The issue for me is that as I am in Milton Keynes the shared ownership market is very strong and it means that I can put a 'premium' on the property so I am able to make more money. I cannot do this until I am able to market the property myself.

I spoke to Guinness and they told me that I cannot opt out of the nomination period - even though I told them that I will not be accepting any offers, I was then told that I cannot reject offers and it is up to Guinness to accept or reject.

I want to know if this is legally binding - can they make me serve a nomination period - and even more frustrating - do I have no say at all in regards to accepting and rejecting offers during the nomination period.

I have a copy of the lease agreement if anyone would want to look over it.

DandelionPatrol

Perhaps you would do better to identify relevant clauses and post them here for opinions?

AFAICS,

• they could not prevent you from having it on the market with an agent before or during the nomination period
• they could not force you to actually sell to their nominee, although they could prevent you from selling to your choice of buyer

AliceBanned

Chances are they would get no buyers during the nomination period, as it is quite short, and housing associations tend to be rubbish at marketing them. It might be worth a try. You could turn down an offer - ie if it is too low just back out of the sale at that point and stay put for a while longer? That way you might have the chance of getting past the nomination period, or it might not work, but it is worth having a go given the fact that it won't be widely marketed (probably). Guiness can't force you to go through with a sale. People back out all the time.


My SO flat is the same. Many have a nomination period but a month isn't that long for them to market it and find a buyer - it could get missed.

libf

You would have been told about the nomination period and conditions of selling when you bought the property, so if you didn't agree with it then you shouldn't have bought.

If you refuse all offers via Guinness then they in turn may refuse all offers you put forward.

Selling at market value is par for the course with shared ownership.

MK1987

I totally understand that a nomination period is normal for SO properties, but I can't imagine that Guinness are able to sell a property for whatever they want without me having any legal way of stopping them.

I have read that they do not market them very well and I could end up going through the nomination period without selling, which would be ideal. However, I know that I have put a lot of time and money into this house in which I expect to make a tidy profit on. I had to pay a premium to get into the property and have been told by 3 different estate agents that when on the open market I will easily get a premium above 10k but more likely 15k+. This is why I am desperate for it to reach the open market. If it is sold during the nomination period I will not receive any premium, because this is their policy (obviously I would back out of any potential sale during a nomination period but this would restart the nomination period).

libf

They're not selling for whatever they want, they're selling for market value, surely? Part of the process is having an independent valuer give a price for your property, which it is then marketed for.

My place in Oxford got 12 applications in the 2 weeks it was online. I had 3 viewings and 2 of the 3 wanted to proceed.

suki1964

Indeed the property will be valued by an independent surveyor, not the locAl estate agent. They will set the price. Mine was set at £15k less then the local estate agents were suggesting. We had one open day viewing in which 12 couples came to view, about 5 of them wished to procceed and the HA allocated on eligibility. We had no say as to who we sold to. Deal was done and dusted by the HA. We just paid the bills. All sorted within the 28 days. They have plenty of people on their books who are eligible to buy who have proved they are ready to proceed


These are the terms you sign up for when buying SO and I know our advisor took great pains to explain the whole process to us when we were buying

bekkiboo

Just wondered.. did you manage to sell on the open market. I am having the same worry. If I sell with Guinness I won't get enough to purchase the house I want.

Gigervamp

I doubt you will get a reply as the original poster only posted twice, in July last year.