Shared ownership - staircasing advice

ega05th

Hi,

We are currently in a shared ownership scheme with an unnamed, but totally awful, housing association. We are now 2 years into the agreement and are looking to staircase our ownership from 75% to 100%.

We do, however, want to then immediately rent or sell the property for relocation purposes. My question is whether we need to buy the full 100% before selling, or will buyers accept into the shared ownership agreement? and would the housing association agree to it?

My concern is paying the associated fees for the additional 25% purchase, where it might not be necessary to do so.

Any advice would be really appreciated,

Regards
Tom

Silence101

We're just about to buy our first share of a S/O, but I've read that if you're selling a share, the HA has first referral to find a buyer (and can take ages). As for selling once you own the 100% you need to read your contracts to see if that first referral is still applicable. I guess it depends how quickly you want to move, and what the contracts say.

00ec25

ega05th wrote: »

Hi,

We are currently in a shared ownership scheme with an unnamed, but totally awful, housing association. We are now 2 years into the agreement and are looking to staircase our ownership from 75% to 100%.

Did you make a market value election or did you opt to pay SDLT on staircasing? You will be crossing the 80% ownership threshold of SDLT purposes - have you checked if you will have to pay any?

We do, however, want to then immediately rent or sell the property for relocation purposes. My question is whether we need to buy the full 100% before selling, or will buyers accept into the shared ownership agreement? and would the housing association agree to it?

since you have not named the HA how do you expect anyone on here to be able to read their T&C (assuming they are available online) and thus advise you on the actual circumstances applicable to you ?

My concern is paying the associated fees for the additional 25% purchase, where it might not be necessary to do so.

Any advice would be really appreciated,

Regards
Tom

read your contract

obviously if you do not own 100% then you cannot sell 100%, so the HA will still have a say in the sale proceedings

gazzabboi

Be careful who you get a valuation with. Last year my house was valued at £230k, I staircased a bit. This year I had another valuation and it just came back at £270k. Absolute joke. Just wasted £300 on a survey because I can't afford more shares at that price. 18% rise in a year, no chance.

haras_nosirrah

I specialise in shared ownership - you do not need to own 100% to sell. Most housing associations will want to have the initial marketing period (the one I do a lot of work for is 8 weeks) to enable them to try and find a buyer under shared ownership. They can though waive this and you can sell as a 100% property but you get 75% of what it sells for and the ha get the other 25%. This is called a back to back sale.

The point re the stamp duty is very valid as if you go over 75% ownership you will pay stamp duty if you buy 100% and the property did not have the full stamp duty paid on initial purchase.

you cannot rent it out if you do not own 100% of the property.

If you want to rent it out you will need to own 100%, if you want to sell immediately I wouldn't staircase as the fees would outweigh any gain

00ec25

haras_nosirrah wrote: »

The point re the stamp duty is very valid as if you go over [STRIKE]75%[/STRIKE] 80% ownership you will pay stamp duty if you buy 100% and the property did not have the full stamp duty paid on initial purchase.

lets put that down to you making a typo rather than showing your "specialist" knowledge

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sdlt-shared-ownership-property