shared ownership and fees

Newbie78

Simba-ali34 wrote: »

so my financial adviser said i passed the affordability test and they will forward the details onto the housing association. The property will then be awarded to whoever meets their criteria (or so they said)

The financial adviser who i spoke to today was one of the contacts on help to buys website and he says he can get me a mortgage in principal should i be accepted. My question is what happens if it all goes well and he is able to do that? whats the next step in terms of hiring a solicitor etc? Like i said above i have never done this before and dont really know the steps towards pushing it along? if it means anything its a new build property.

I have emailed the housing association but while i am waiting for a response can anyone lend any advice who has been through the stages of shared ownership?

Regards

Donnafon28 wrote: »

I am in the exact position as you! We are having a telephone conference with our mortgage advisor next Tuesday to hopefully get a mortgage in principle. I have emailed a local appointed solicitor to find out their fees. I keep laughing to myself that this is a help to buy scheme yet lacking help!! Keep us updated on any info your end x

Hello both,


My partner and I have just been through the shared ownership process and moved into our place over the weekend (new build)


Once we had approval from the housing association we then booked in to meet our MA to put in the full application
We also called the recommended solicitor and they were great (deal with shared ownership a lot) advised fees and basics for us, had to give them ID copies signed by witnesses also before they can work for you


The process then went to the mortgage wait process, asked for some more docs, then booked in for valuation
slight stuff up as the wrong keys were sent on the day of valuation so it was delayed a week
in the meantime we just checked in with the solicitor, MA and housing association as the weeks ticked by.(I recommend this, don't worry about feeling like a nag, often things happened after we called!)


Had the offer finally confirmed on the 12th Dec, felt like a lifetime. Leeds BS are very slow in their processes but we were told this from the start


Solicitor had done searches by this stage and we went in to sign some documents the following week


We had to push the HA a few times but we got there in the end, but highly receommend a good solicitor (one who deals with S/O)


Good luck to you both!

suki1964

Christina_H. wrote: »

It's an old build. The couple that are selling their share have been in the property for a long time.

The HA still retains a share and needs a solicitor to act for them on their behalf. You unfortunately pick up the tab, or half I think because I'm pretty damm sure I paid my HA fees on both buying and selling

Christina_H.

Wow really? I'm just really surprised this has never been mentioned before by anyone. Not the HA, the Estate agents, the Sellers and even our Solicitors are confused in regards to this. Sure it makes sense in a way as the HA own a share of that property but we're not buying that share of it, yet. It would make more sense to charge us at the time of staircasing. I mean paying for our Solicitors and the HA Solicitors is a massive amount, considering things could still fall through and all that money could be lost. Not sure this is helping people to buy a Shared Ownership property, especially when it is so unexpected and undocumented.
One more question, would the seller have to pay the Housing associations Solicitor too at this point, so both of us, seller and buyer? (You said you were sure you had to pay when buying and selling)?
Thanks for your reply

Simba-ali34

Hello.

So would paying HA fees apply to me Aswell with it being a Newbuild? Or does it vary between housing associations? I have a rough budget of £3000 for fees maybe I need to rethink that....lol

Christina_H.

Hi,
We have only just found out about this ourselves. Not sure if this is even right to charge the buyer. We are currently waiting for some answers in regards to this.
I would say, it might be worth to ask the HA about this. We expected some additional costs from them but not to pay for their Solicitors too.:mad:

suki1964

The buyer in all instances pays the HA Fees, it's in their packs in black and white

And when you come to sell, you again pay for an independent valuation on top of their fees

Christina_H.

Hi
thank you for that. Do you mean the Management pack? We haven't even received that yet, or knew about it. Only know about it now and the cost for it, from an email that was sent from the HA solicitors to ours, who informed us only yesterday. ( I say "informed", they asked for the money)
You would have thought the HA would have informed us about this at the start of the process.

suki1964

Christina_H. wrote: »

Hi
thank you for that. Do you mean the Management pack? We haven't even received that yet, or knew about it. Only know about it now and the cost for it, from an email that was sent from the HA solicitors to ours, who informed us only yesterday. ( I say "informed", they asked for the money)
You would have thought the HA would have informed us about this at the start of the process.

Obviously I don't know which HA you are with so can't comment

When we started the process many moons ago, I rang to apply and was sent application form and info pack which stated quite clearly what we were expected to pay. When we went for the affordability interview, once again it was spelled out to us what we would be paying

You know also if you staircase, you pay for the valuation and their solicitors ?

Yes it adds up, yes it can be a bit of a shock but end of the day the HA's are there to make a profit to invest back into more schemes and social housing

Christina_H.

Hi
Thank you, I appreciate your reply.
Yeah we also had to fill out an application form and affordability I think but apart from an acceptance letter and a Memorandum of Sale for the mortgage company, we haven't had anything else.

Anyway, now we are aware of the extra fees, thanks to you we can deal with it. We want the house, so we'll have to pay. It just would have been helpful if we would have been made aware of this by the HA at the start of the process.

Thanks again