Buy Back of ex Council House

emmadv05

da_rule wrote: »

If you have a letter stating that they don’t want to buy it and that they aren’t nominating another social landlord to stand in their place then you’re good to go.

The only issue may be that the letter is only valid for 12 months so, depending on how quickly you can sell it, you may have to get a new certificate from them.

The process is, usually quite straightforward:
1) You issue a notice to them offering them the property and containing all of the information required under the statutory regulations (which I assume you did this time);
2) Within 8 weeks they either refuse or accept the offer (failure to reply is a refusal);
3) If the offer is refused then you have 12 months to sell;
4) If the offer is accepted the council must buy back at market value. If you cannot agree market value then you should, under section 158 of the Housing Act 1985, request the valuation to be undertaken by the district valuer which is then binding.
5) The council has 12 weeks from issuing the acceptance notice or 4 weeks from you serving them notice that you are ready to complete (whichever is later) to enter into a contract for sale. Any time spent with the matter being referred to the district valuer is disregarded.
6) If the council does not enter into the contract then you can dispose of the property however and whenever you like (the 12 month rule does not apply).

Thanks for this.

I’m a bit confused about number 5.
Do the council have 12 weeks from issuing the acceptance notice of them wanting to purchase the property or from when I accepted the offer?

da_rule

emmadv05 wrote: »

Thanks for this.

I’m a bit confused about number 5.
Do the council have 12 weeks from issuing the acceptance notice of them wanting to purchase the property or from when I accepted the offer?

As it’s statutory you don’t really have a choice but to accept the offer. Essentially this means that if they haven’t entered into a contract with you within 12 weeks you can walk away, if you have also served them notice to complete. The issue is that you can’t serve notice to complete if you haven’t agreed the price. This is why the district valuer should be used as soon as there’s a disagreement.

In your case, you have the refusal letter. The question becomes whether you can complete within 12 months of it being issued. I would now argue that as they have already said no, the district valuer is no longer available to you and this is more like a private sale rather than one governed by the rules contained within the statute as the statute does not permit them to change their mind once they’ve refused.