Right to Buy a house managed by housing association but owned by Police

chairgaz

Hello all, my father has lived in his council property for over 40yrs. During this time the managing of the property has transferred the housing trusts and now a housing association. Jointly, last year, we tried to obtain the house through Right to Buy. However, the property is owned by the Police. Does anyone have any advice on where my father stands? After previously accepting and signing off the Right to Buy forms, the housing association are no stating he does not have the right while coming across surprised that a property they manage was not owned by them. Any advice gratefully received. Thank you 

KatrinaWaves

if the property is owned by the police, then the RTA (think its right to acquire with Housing association) won't apply. The housing association can't sell what they do not own.

davidmcn

Sounds a bit confusing - your dad thinks it's a council house, the housing association think it's theirs, and it turns out to be owned by the police? Was he never aware of the police involvement?
If it were as straightforward as being a police house then the right to buy (I think) would apply in the same way as council housing (at least that was the position in Scotland, I presume it was the same elsewhere).

chairgaz

davidmcn said:

Sounds a bit confusing - your dad thinks it's a council house, the housing association think it's theirs, and it turns out to be owned by the police? Was he never aware of the police involvement?
If it were as straightforward as being a police house then the right to buy (I think) would apply in the same way as council housing (at least that was the position in Scotland, I presume it was the same elsewhere).

Thanks for replying. It’s a very confusing situation. We have a letter last week from the Housing Association staying he was “wrongly given preserved right to buy status in 2004”. So he assumed since then he had the right and was entitled to the full discount. The HA even went as far as to sign off the RTB paperwork and send a valuer. Only when they checked the Land Registry did they see that it was Owned by the Police. All tenancies have been with either the local council, Housing Trust or Housing Association since 1979.   

chairgaz

KatrinaWaves said:

if the property is owned by the police, then the RTA (think its right to acquire with Housing association) won't apply. The housing association can't sell what they do not own.

Hello, thank you. Totally agree, HA can’t sell what they don’t own. The query is that he was made aware years ago that he had the same rights as other tenants (not owned by Police). So it’s worth us checking if something has gone wrong and he is entitled to his discount. 

xylophone

However, the property is owned by the Police.

https://www.reallymoving.com/documents/righttobuyscheme

This seems a bit of an oddity. If it were a "police house" presumably it would be a house provided for a specific purpose ( the use of a police officer/ a person whom the Police wanted to house/ a police office etc).

However, if this were the case, it seems strange that a member of the public is in the property and with what seems to be a secure council tenancy.

Worth further investigation.

lincroft1710

Perhaps the police service who owned the house had no serving police officer who wished/needed to live there, so whilst not wishing to sell it, they allowed or rented to HA (or predecessor) to sublet to tenants

HampshireH

Why don't you write to the police for their thoughts as the freeholder

It wouldn't be that unusual for the council to have obtained it on a long lease.