Right To Buy

kiddie03

Hi would it be possible if someone could advise me please. I have right to buy on my council house with a possible 40% discount off the price of my house, ive put in the right to buy forms and awaiting a surveyor to value the house, with the fall of house prices i would like to know how long does the price stay on record for? Because if i decide not to buy because i have heard that it is hard to get a morgage. Will it have to be re-valued once the credit crunch is over if i re-apply again later on?

Optikal

When i bought RTB in 2006, the valuation was valid for 6 months, the Council were dragging their feet over some paperwork so my house needed to be revalued, though the actual valuation stayed the same.

Richard_Webster

If you are sure prices will fall you might be better to wait for this to happen and then apply again and you will get the house cheaper.

Also remember that a lot of areas the size of the discount is capped and nowhere is it more than £38,000 (and in in your area it might be less) and so even if 40% is more than the capped figure you only get a discount of the capped figure. So if you wait and prices go down you might get it substantially cheaper.

E,g. House worth £150K. Therefore with 40% discount you would expect to get it for £90K but actually cheapest would be £112K (£150K-£38K) and could be more if the maximum cap doesn't apply in your area. Value falls to £125K. 40% of this is £50K but you can't have all that but with the £38K discount you get it for £87K!

Swift1_3

You can reject the offer immediately rather than waiting for it to expire and then apply again with no prejudice and the property will be revalued and given an up-to-date market value.

However virtually nobody is entitled to 40% discount these days, can I ask what county you live in?

All in all though no harm in getting the price and seeing if its reasonable.

kiddie03

Thankyou for your reply,that has really helped. I was under the understanding that you get an extra 1% discount for every year your a council tennant, what i mean is that after being a tennant for 2 years you get 32% discount and then another 1% for every year after that, i didnt know that there was such a thing as a capped discount, how would i find out if there is a capped discount in my area and what it might be? I think the right to buy forms that i filled in might of been abit misleading because it said that you could get up to a max 60% discount( not that i would qualify for that) thats why i added it up that mine would be around 40%.

kiddie03

If you know the capped discount for the essex county that would be great. Thanks

Swift1_3

Assuming Essex is counted as being in the East region the maximum discount is £34K off the market value. Highest available is some areas of the South East which get £38K. Lowest is Wales and some parts of London at £16K discount.
The percentage discounts are largely irrelevant now as house prices are so high that most tenants qualify for the maximum capped rate in their area after 5 years, meaning they could stay renting for a further 50 years and still not get a penny extra discount.
Good luck with the valuation, will keep fingers crossed for you, have you seen how much similar houses in your road usually go for?