Council Right of First Refusal

konark

Most councils disposed of their housing stock to Housing Association Trusts donkeys years ago. I doubt whether either would be interested in buying back your house at market price, it's just a formality you have to go through before you sell/dispose within the 10 years.

da_rule

silvercar wrote: »

what happens if the council are not buying properties at a time when you decide you want to sell, say a few years down the line?

If they don’t complete within the time frames then it has the effect of removing the covenant and the property can be sold on the open market.

konark wrote: »

Most councils disposed of their housing stock to Housing Association Trusts donkeys years ago. I doubt whether either would be interested in buying back your house at market price, it's just a formality you have to go through before you sell/dispose within the 10 years.

That is why the Regulations also allow parties with the benefit of the covenant to nominate another social landlord to receive the offer instead of them. Therefore, a council can nominate a housing association to deal with offers and buy back properties if that council no longer has housing stock.

Mr_Big

Thanks a lot for all the helpful responses, much appreciated. I will liaise with the council with the new found information and take it from there. Should I need any further guidance I'll reply to this thread.

nigelforde

Hi, please can someone help. I have a right to buy, and soon to be 5 years completion. How do I find out the timescale for the council to approve a commitment to buy back as part of them having 1st refusal. Also, I assume it will be market value and also around 12 weeks. 
Also, if they refuse to take up the option, do I assume I have a timeframe to open it up to the market.

Thank you

heston2014

nigelforde said:

Hi, please can someone help. I have a right to buy, and soon to be 5 years completion. How do I find out the timescale for the council to approve a commitment to buy back as part of them having 1st refusal. Also, I assume it will be market value and also around 12 weeks. 
Also, if they refuse to take up the option, do I assume I have a timeframe to open it up to the market.

Thank you

You will need to issue an Offer Notice to the Council to notify them your intention to dispose the property and that you're offering them to buy it back.  This can be in writing or in an email to the Home Ownership department. The Council will have 8 weeks to either reject or accept.  If they accept, I believe it's another 12 weeks to enter into contract, it will be market value, unless you can't agree on price, then a district valuer would be involved.
If they reject, they will issue a Rejection letter by which you will have 12 months to dispose the property on the open market.
The Right of First Refusal last for 10 years from when you bought the property, which means, if after 12 months you will haven't sold the property on the open market, you will go through he same process with the council again of offering them to buy back.  This will be the case until the 10 year restriction ends.

Adrew1234

I know this is an old post but I'm hoping someone can help.
How long did you have to wait from you accepting the council offer price, to them processing the formal approval, and this, proceeding to the councils Conveyancing? 
We accepted the Market Value offer, four weeks ago and it was then submitted for formal approval, but it seems to be stuck there, with no information on how long it will take, despite countless emails.    
Thanks.

flyingv

Adrew1234 said:

I know this is an old post but I'm hoping someone can help.
How long did you have to wait from you accepting the council offer price, to them processing the formal approval, and this, proceeding to the councils Conveyancing? 
We accepted the Market Value offer, four weeks ago and it was then submitted for formal approval, but it seems to be stuck there, with no information on how long it will take, despite countless emails.    
Thanks.

When I went through this process, I had 12 weeks to either accept or decline the council's offer price.  I think conveyancing started pretty much straight away.  On the acceptance form I had to let the Council know who my lender was.  It was just over 4 months from the date on the form to the date of completion.

Hope that helps

Adrew1234

flyingv said:

Adrew1234 said:

I know this is an old post but I'm hoping someone can help.
How long did you have to wait from you accepting the council offer price, to them processing the formal approval, and this, proceeding to the councils Conveyancing? 
We accepted the Market Value offer, four weeks ago and it was then submitted for formal approval, but it seems to be stuck there, with no information on how long it will take, despite countless emails.    
Thanks.

When I went through this process, I had 12 weeks to either accept or decline the council's offer price.  I think conveyancing started pretty much straight away.  On the acceptance form I had to let the Council know who my lender was.  It was just over 4 months from the date on the form to the date of completion.

Hope that helps

Thank you. 
We were informed by the council's Surveyor of the offer price and asked if we wanted to proceed with this offer...which we agreed, four weeks ago. (All communications via email). We haven't actually received anything formally, which I guess is what we are waiting for...seems to be painfully slow, when it appears it's all already been agreed! 
I know they need to make sure everything is checked, and then checked again, but I wish someone could give me a rough idea of how long it's going to take...we haven't even started the Conveyancing process yet. 
It's been almost 13 weeks since we received their acceptance notice. 

flyingv

Wow, that does sound like a long time and I thought my Local Authority were slow!  Can you contact the person you have been dealing with and ask them what the hold-up is?  There may be a telephone number for Right To Buy on your council's website.  Give them a call and see what's going on.  Good luck, hope you'll be in the Waiting to Exchange thread soon.

Just to give you a flavour, my process took 9 months from start to finish, starting in May/June 2017, acceptance form dated 3rd October 2017 and completed end of Feb 2018.  It does take a while.

Adrew1234

flyingv said:

Wow, that does sound like a long time and I thought my Local Authority were slow!  Can you contact the person you have been dealing with and ask them what the hold-up is?  There may be a telephone number for Right To Buy on your council's website.  Give them a call and see what's going on.  Good luck, hope you'll be in the Waiting to Exchange thread soon.

Just to give you a flavour, my process took 9 months from start to finish, starting in May/June 2017, acceptance form dated 3rd October 2017 and completed end of Feb 2018.  It does take a while.

Me, too! My only contact is the Survayor and the Business Support Hub. They've been chasing the housing department, on my behalf but I'm not getting any response.

Hope you don't mind me asking what what was happening between, June and October?