Selling a shared ownership

suki1964

Anyone have any experience in selling a shared ownership property?

We have made a lot of improvemnets to our property, totally gutted it and modernised it and added a single storey extension. Although we have spent around 30K the house itself is only being valued at around 5K more then other houses in our road which I suppose is fair enough. What Im interested in is how do housing associations work out how much your improvements are worth? Do they just give you what your property makes over others in your street or do they take into account the initial outlay? And if is the outlay how do you go about proving how much you spent? We havent got receipts as most of the work was done by hubby (builder)

Many thanks

Anya

We have a shared ownership house. When I have read up about selling, I'm pretty sure that they are supposed to value your property as if you hadn't made any improvements. We had new front doors put in and the garden done (cost £3500), whatever value that has added to the property should not be taken into consideration when it is valued. I don't really know how that would work when it came to getting your share back though?! It is very confusing! I'd phone the Housing Association - they normally have a guide they can send you about how to go about it etc.

sshnuke

Have you made that call yet as Anya suggested? one of the housing associations primary concerns is to give you as much information as possible so that you can make an informed decision! this is a really simple enquiry so get to it and don't let calling them put you off in the slightest you only need to say something like "i have a shared ownership home can you send me some info on selling the property please?" it should be that simple.

Anya is right.

- the property is valued without improvements taken into consideration

- the Housing association only takes their percentage of this valuation.

call the housing association to confirm the details and get as much info as you can about how it works.

btw.... i wouldn't worry about the reciepts. buyers usually want to see guarantees e.g damproofing etc.

Lemoncurd

My parents have a shared ownership house and have always said that if they were to make improvements they would only receive half of the benefit of any gain due to the improvement when they come to sell.
i.e. They paid 50k for a 50% share of a 100k house, if they spent 20k and the house then sold for £140k they would only get 70k back.

It may vary depending on your contract with the particular Housing Association so you definitely need to ak them if you don't already have something in writing to hand.

suki1964

I had rang the housing trust but they "forgot" to send out the information and sellers pack as promised But I rang again today and hopefully its on its way

Now I am really confused (going to have to wait for the pack to arrive). When we bought, we bought as a D.I.Y and we were of the understanding that as we bought from the open market we could sell on the open market. Ive now been told thats no longer the case and the housing trust will arrange a buyer. Good news with that is that they have a lot of people on their lists and they will only be offering it to people who can afford the price so nobody messing about with offers

As for the improvements, well its not looking so good. First I was told that we would keep all the costs of the improvements that we made - and we have in effect turned a slum into a pretty decent house, spending a lot of money along the way.Now we have been told that the surveyor will value the house as it originally stood (2 bedrooms, one reception) then value it for a two bed two reception and the difference will be ours. Trouble being all the houses around here go for around the same price as they all have the same sq footage, just different layouts. Looks like kitchens, bathrooms, double glazing, central heating etc may not be taken into account

Anyway I guess theres no point in worrying untill I get the information from the trust and arrange for a surveyor, just got to stop thinking of that plot of land with our name on as it might not be happening just yet :whistle:

sshnuke

yes... i think it's best to wait until you get the info and you know exactly where you stand.

re: the housing association policy change... both yourself and the housing association entered into an agreement. if this has changed you would have to be have been notified and\or signed a new agreement.

have the agreement handy and familiarise yourself with the most basic points so that you can refer to it easily when the info arrives.

tightgit_2

suki1964 wrote:

Anyone have any experience in selling a shared ownership property?

We have made a lot of improvemnets to our property, totally gutted it and modernised it and added a single storey extension. Although we have spent around 30K the house itself is only being valued at around 5K more then other houses in our road which I suppose is fair enough. What Im interested in is how do housing associations work out how much your improvements are worth? Do they just give you what your property makes over others in your street or do they take into account the initial outlay? And if is the outlay how do you go about proving how much you spent? We havent got receipts as most of the work was done by hubby (builder)

Many thanks

Are you in a position to buy the rest of the share from the housing !!!!!!. thus getting it at a good price and then selling the whole house on the open market thereby recieving the benefit of all your hard work and money.
Even if you got a self cert. mortgage, if you were going to sell it again asap it wouldn't matter, as long as you could afford the repayments short term.

This is just an idea as I do not know how these things work.