Shared Ownership - Offers?

iamstacie

Can you put in offers on shared ownership properties? The one I'm interested is with a normal estate agent rather than the housing authourity. Thanks in advance

CYBERCIDERSAVER

As the property is with an ea then go ahead. That should mean nobody on the housing register is interested in it so that and the falling prices give you loads of scope for an offer. In my opinion anyway.

izoomzoom

The way I figure SO, the price is fixed by an independent valuer, but there is no harm in trying.

Might be worthwhile seeing if you meet the HA criteria too, as they might not accept your offer without some deposit (could be in the region of £3-500)

Richard_Webster

As the property is with an ea then go ahead. That should mean nobody on the housing register is interested in it so that and the falling prices give you loads of scope for an offer. In my opinion anyway.

Do not assume this is the case. There are a lot of people out there who just don't understand the terms of their shared ownership lease. The estate agents should be asked for precise details of what the seller had to do to satisfy the Hsg Assn etc and what he has actually done. If they don't know then it is quite possible that further down the track you will find out the seller can't sell to you.

This is the kind of thing factory conveyancers don't understand and they might send out draft contract papers without looking through the lease. It is only when your solicitor looks at the lease and asks pertinent questions about the process the seller has been though to avoid having to sell to a nominee that it might turn out that the seller has not even approached the Hsg Assn.

Also you may find that if offered on the open market it can only be sold at a figure determined by an independent valuer under the process set out in the lease.

iamstacie

Thanks for all the advice so far. Does anyone know how to find out who the housing association is for a particular house? We have the AIP for SO, we're not that bothered about the asking price for the 25% because its quite reasonable for the area, we just want to know if we fit their criteria for a SO house. I've looked around and it seems Plumlife manage most of the properties in our area, either directly or on behalf of other HAs, but I cant find this particular property on any listings? Potential problem being its a 3 bed house, and theres only 2 of us for now. Plus I earn over most HA thresholds for assistance, but not enough to buy a similar house (OH earns more but no proof of earnings which is another problem - if he could we could buy a similar house on a 'normal' mortgage - don't know if this might be a problem for us with HA's).

Swift1_3

I purchased half a house through an estate agent. The portion being resold by the originally buyer was negotiable ( I paid £18K instead of £18.5K) but then the other half I bought from the housing association after a couple of years had to be at the set market value of £20K.

Richard_Webster

Does anyone know how to find out who the housing association is for a particular house?

Assuming this is in England/Wales then Go to Land Registry website and do enquiry for property using postcode etc. You should find that there are both freehold and leasehold titles. Usually the freehold will belong tot he Housing Association so you get a copy of that for £3 - then you can find who owns it.

brit1234

I would touch Shared Ownership with a barge pole. There are loads of extra conditions, with the rent and the usually very high maintance charges it works out very expensive equal to buying a property outright almost.

Plus being newbuilds with all their restrictions the prices will plummet faster than normal properties in this crash.

portsmouthali

brit1234 wrote: »

I would touch Shared Ownership with a barge pole. There are loads of extra conditions, with the rent and the usually very high maintance charges it works out very expensive equal to buying a property outright almost

This wasn't the case for us. We bought a 25% share on a 3 bedroom house valued at 120k. Our mortgage is for 30k and we pay £205.00 per month, and we pay £306 per month in rent/service charge to the housing association. If we got a mortgage for the full £120k we would be paying more like £750 - £800 per month which we just couldn't afford on our current salaries.

Theres no harm in the OP checking out the figures to see if it works for them.

clairewp

brit1234 wrote: »

I would touch Shared Ownership with a barge pole. There are loads of extra conditions, with the rent and the usually very high maintance charges it works out very expensive equal to buying a property outright almost.

Plus being newbuilds with all their restrictions the prices will plummet faster than normal properties in this crash.

I own a fifty % share on a house my mortgage is£ 285 a month and my rent is £109 we don't have to pay a service charge. Just a word of warning there are not many mortgage companies that will do shared ownership.
claire