Shared Equity Home - What to do next?

gillydee

Hi Luke1987,

Regarding the builders blocking the transfer of equity, I am in a similar scheme (just bought last year) and went through the contract with a fine toothcomb with my solicitor and developer as I was made very wary of these schemes. What I found out that might be applicable to you (or not)... is that shared equity is usually given to people who otherwise could not afford to buy the property outright and if circumstances changes for the better, the owner should (or is expected to) seek to buy out the remaining stake from the contributor before doing anything else. The same goes for stuff like major alterations. If you have enough money to do major alterations to the house, you technically have enough money to reduce your share. Hence why in a lot of shared equity properties you need to obtain "permission" from the developer/contributor before altering your property. So the developers never normally grant major alterations. I suppose its a way to ensure shared equity is only given to those who actually need it. If you don't need it, they will expect you to reduce your share (to protect equity share funds). So regarding your situation, the builders might be blocking this because if the other party has enough money to buy out more shares, they feel they should buy out shares from the developer first.

Also regarding your "share", was this stated in your contract? That you yourself provided " x" amount, and your ex provided "x" amount each? If not and you were both named as having provided the deposit, the developer may not recognise any informal arrangement you had with your ex regarding your "share" of the property. Again, hence why they say no.