Right to buy help delay notices

pinecone

I applied to buy my council house in September 2020, since then the council have made a number of errors and delays and I won’t get into every one of them, just note a couple of relevant ones to my enquiry.

I have issued rtb6 forms on 3 occasions and issued rtb8 forms for all 3, the council have not ever served a rtb7 counter notice but they deny that my rtb8 forms are valid. For example I issued a rtb6 in December 2021 (during this time there was a boundary issue we had raised in October 2021 where it turns out they previously sold part of my garden to the neighbour as they never checked the boundary when selling their house) and in early January they sent a surveyor out to look at the boundary, so they refuse to accept that my rtb8 served in late jan is valid “because they were finally looking at the issue”. I cannot see anything in the rules or legislation that would make my rtb8 invalid as the guides and the legislation wording is clear that a rtb7 needs to be served. 

I had served 2 rtb6 forms in 2020 as the council were late in responding to confirm I have the right to buy and then late again with the valuation (which ended up being wrong) and no counter notice was ever issued. These steps were finally resolved however no rtb7 was ever issued and from looking at the guides and legislation i get the impression that the rtb6 will still be valid for these and j served rtb8 forms in dec21 (when I sent the most recent rtb6). The council deny these will be valid as they did complete the steps despite no counter notice being issued.

the original valuation seemed high, I requested details of comparisons (which have never been supplied) and evidence to support their valuation, the only document supplied was a table showing number of rooms in the house which was wrong as they had included an extra reception room! I disputed this and appealed via the district valuer who valued the hose at 15k less than the council. As the council have provided no comparisons and it appears their initial valuation was incorrect (extra room added and DV confirm should be less) would it be valid?? The incorrect valuation added 9 months delay as needed to wait for the district valued, the council refuse to acknowledge that they incorrectly valued the house despite changing the offer to reflect the DVs valuation.

can anyone advise if they know whether my rtb8 forms would be valid? I have an open stage 3 complaint with the council, but they are over a month overdue on their response and their stage 1 & 2 responses (which were also late) were very much “computer says no” type responses and they did not even address all of my points.

thank you for any assistance.

pinecone

Anyone able to assist?

Norman_Castle

pinecone said:

the original valuation seemed high, I requested details of comparisons (which have never been supplied) and evidence to support their valuation, the only document supplied was a table showing number of rooms in the house which was wrong as they had included an extra reception room! I disputed this and appealed via the district valuer who valued the hose at 15k less than the council. As the council have provided no comparisons and it appears their initial valuation was incorrect (extra room added and DV confirm should be less) would it be valid?? The incorrect valuation added 9 months delay as needed to wait for the district valued, the council refuse to acknowledge that they incorrectly valued the house despite changing the offer to reflect the DVs valuation.

The council don't need to justify their valuation, you wasted time asking them to. Was the 9 month delay for the district valuer due to covid or other reasons they couldn't attend sooner?

 

pinecone

The delay was partially due to the district valuer but partly due to the council also taking a long time to send their new offer after the dv provided their new valuation. 

The councils valuation document shows their valuation was based on a property with an extra room and the district valuer has confirmed they over valued it by £15k

Nnenne1

pinecone said:

The delay was partially due to the district valuer but partly due to the council also taking a long time to send their new offer after the dv provided their new valuation. 

The councils valuation document shows their valuation was based on a property with an extra room and the district valuer has confirmed they over valued it by £15k

Is the partly sold off garden, now sorted out?

pinecone

Nnenne1 said:

pinecone said:

The delay was partially due to the district valuer but partly due to the council also taking a long time to send their new offer after the dv provided their new valuation. 

The councils valuation document shows their valuation was based on a property with an extra room and the district valuer has confirmed they over valued it by £15k

Is the partly sold off garden, now sorted out?

Sorry it’s taken a while to respond, but no it is not sorted. The councils position is that they sold it to the neighbors and they will not do anything to correct their mistake and I will need to take a separate legal application to have the boundaries corrected. I wanted the council to resolve it as it was their error and they won’t and then they have served section 140 and 141 notices threatening to withdraw my right to buy if I don’t complete. I have told my conveyancer to proceed with the sale without resolving the boundary issue because I don’t want to have my application withdrawn. I feel like the council are bullying me and they shouldn’t be issuing the 140 and 141 notices when there is a boundary dispute. As they had sold part of my garden in error, I think it should be their job to fix that before the sale completes and not be left for me to fix which will probably come at an additional expense to me

pinecone

Also they have issued their 140 and 141 notices when I am still awaiting responses from them. So for example on 7th February I submitted a stage 3 complaint about all of their delays/errors, refusing to accept the rtb8, the boundary error and just how they have handled everything so far, their complaints procedure says I should have had a response within 20 days however to date they still have not responded despite me chasing dozens of times, yet they issued their section 141 notice on 21st March. I don’t see how they can deny that my rtb6 and rtb8 forms are valid when they didn’t send any counter notices, but they are adamant that their 140 and 141 notices are valid despite them not responding to me and there being a number of outstanding issues, they are refusing to take responsibility for any of their mistakes and I am now having to agree to buy a house with a boundary dispute.

they have decided that the only rules that apply to the right to buy process are the ones that suit them and even then they have not applied them correctly as shouldn’t issue 140 or 141 notices when there are outstanding issues