Shared Ownership Staircasing to from 50% to 100% timescales

moo313

I am curious to know the legal timescale on staircasing to 100%. Natwest has issued me a remortgage offer on the 14th July. I have decided to use their appointed solicitors to assist in the remortgage completion and perform the staircasing to 100%. I have informed my solicitors on the same day that my property is a shared ownership and that I want to staircase to 100%. I also informed them I already paid the stamp duty on 100% of the value of property when I first purchased in in September 2016. Since then they haven't been great with the feedback on its progress. I am constantly having to chase for updates. To which they appeared to be annoyed with me calling on a weekly basis.
I have recently had feedback stating they have written to the Management Agency for my apartment to organise confirmation of requirements and fees for the transfer of the headlease title. and this should involve me to enter into a deed of covenant.  Also I sitll haven't been given the Memorandum of Staircasing to sign! 

My major worry is the deadline to complete the staircasing is approaching fast. I have a four more weeks left. The actual deadline is on the 16th September. Will everything be completed before the deadline?

NinjaTune

EDIT:  Ignore the following questions, I assume you are able to staircase in one step to 100%.  Not sure of legal deadlines, hopefully someone else will be able to advise you.

What percentage do you currently own? Should read properly, you own 50%

Some HA's only allow you to buy 10% at a time, others allow a higher percentage.  What does your agreement allow you to purchase?  Again, should read properly - your HA must allow you to jump from 50% to 100%

izoomzoom

We were suppose to exchange and complete our final staircase today, but it failed because the HA has not signed something, so the funds have been returned to our lender
We opted to go with a solicitor that a friend had used, although not a SO property in their case. I have never had to call the solicitor. She does take a few days to answer emails, but I do get responses, and she always knew that we had to complete by 10/9/20 (3 months from date of valuation). Not sure if this was just the HA criteria, or it was written into our lease.
For comparison purposes:
Solicitor instructed 28/6/20.
Mortgage offer received 27/7/20.
We returned the signed Memorandum of Final Staircasing on 30/7/20.
As long as your solicitor knows your deadline, and your lines of communication are open, I'm sure you will complete in time. You can always escalate the problem with the managing partner of the solicitor firm if you get to September and find you still haven't signed the Memo (ours was just emailed through, we printed, signed & witnessed it & posted original back).

moo313

NinjaTune said:

EDIT:  Ignore the following questions, I assume you are able to staircase in one step to 100%.  Not sure of legal deadlines, hopefully someone else will be able to advise you.

What percentage do you currently own? Should read properly, you own 50%

Some HA's only allow you to buy 10% at a time, others allow a higher percentage.  What does your agreement allow you to purchase?  Again, should read properly - your HA must allow you to jump from 50% to 100%

Yes I currently own 50% and my HA does allow me to staircase straight to 100%.

moo313

izoomzoom said:

We were suppose to exchange and complete our final staircase today, but it failed because the HA has not signed something, so the funds have been returned to our lender
We opted to go with a solicitor that a friend had used, although not a SO property in their case. I have never had to call the solicitor. She does take a few days to answer emails, but I do get responses, and she always knew that we had to complete by 10/9/20 (3 months from date of valuation). Not sure if this was just the HA criteria, or it was written into our lease.
For comparison purposes:
Solicitor instructed 28/6/20.
Mortgage offer received 27/7/20.
We returned the signed Memorandum of Final Staircasing on 30/7/20.
As long as your solicitor knows your deadline, and your lines of communication are open, I'm sure you will complete in time. You can always escalate the problem with the managing partner of the solicitor firm if you get to September and find you still haven't signed the Memo (ours was just emailed through, we printed, signed & witnessed it & posted original back).

The three months deadline seems to be apply to all shared ownership staircasing transactions from the date of valuation.

Yes I have informed my solicitor of the deadline and informed him of my concerns. That the deadline seems to be approaching fast. I'll just be paitent and wait. It does seem things are progressing but as usual the legal side of it seems to be taking forever.

bradders1983

I am going through the process myself, got 3 months from the 17th July (original housing association valuation) to sort it and the mortgage offer has been made as of 2 days ago so cant see it taking another two. Barclays are the lender and using my own solicitor.

moo313

bradders1983 said:

I am going through the process myself, got 3 months from the 17th July (original housing association valuation) to sort it and the mortgage offer has been made as of 2 days ago so cant see it taking another two. Barclays are the lender and using my own solicitor.

It would be interesting to see how yours progresses. I am still waiting for the memorandum of staircasing to be to sent to me to sign. I'll wailt until September and if I don't hear anything by then I'll chase again!