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Right to Buy

Buying your council house

Our Housing Service provides free advice to Bridgnorth District Council tenants wishing to purchase their homes under the Right to Buy (RTB) Scheme.

Tenants of other councils or housing association tenants will need to ask their own landlord about RTB.

You can request conveyancing information for Right to Buy online.

Who qualifies for Right to Buy?

You need to be a secure tenant and you must have held the tenancy of your current property or tenancies of another council or housing association property for at least two years. If however your tenancy began on or after 18th January 2005 and you have not previously been a public sector tenant, you will have to wait 5 years before you can apply.

Partners and/or family members, over the age of 18 years, can share the right to buy with the tenant(s) providing they are currently living at and have lived at that address for the previous 12 months as their only or principal home.

A tenant's husband or wife can share the right to buy without fulfilling the 12 months rule.

Excluded properties

Tenants in properties particularly suitable for the elderly e.g. bungalows and other specialised accommodation cannot buy their homes under the scheme.

Where an application is made to purchase such a property we will provide a formal statement denying the right to buy and providing details of the reason for refusing the application.

The purchase price

A Valuation Inspection is carried out by a local estate agent to determine the current open market value of your home.

The purchase price is determined by deducting the discount (see below) from the valuation.

The cost of recent improvements on your home carried out by the council can reduce the discount, which means that your home cannot be sold for less than the council has spent on acquiring and improving the property over the last eleven years.

If you are unhappy with the valuation you can request an independent valuation from the District Valuer. This must be requested within three months of receiving your offer letter. The District Valuer can increase or decrease the valuation.

The discount

Basically the longer you have been a tenant of a council or housing association, the lower the purchase price will be.

A full list of qualifying organisations can be found in the RTB booklet available from Housing Services at Westgate.

The discount scheme

The amount of discount depends on the qualifying period in years. For a house purchase the discount increases by 1% per year. For a flat or maisonette the discount increases by 2% per year (discount for flat/maisonette shown in brackets)

Years	Discount
2	32%	(44%)
5	35%	(50%)
10	40%	(60%)
15	45%	(70%)
20	50%	(70%)
25	55%	(70%)
30	60%	(70%)
30+	65%	(70%)

A maximum discount of £26,000 applies to properties in the West Midlands region, which includes Bridgnorth.

When you complete the RTB application form you need to provide full details of all your former tenancies so that we can calculate the qualifying period correctly.

Paying for advice

Please be aware that there are a number of companies who specialise in assisting tenants buy their homes and charge for advice that is otherwise available free of charge from their landlords.

Mortgages

When raising the necessary finances to purchase your property, it is always worthwhile to check and compare several of the mortgage deals being offered by High Street banks and building societies before applying to a particular lender for a mortgage.

An application for a mortgage will involve you paying for a property survey. The normal mortgage term is 25 years and you will need to provide proof of earnings.

The lender will require you to have property insurance and you should also consider a mortgage protection insurance policy to cover you against unemployment or illness.

Be wary of the terms offered by firms providing mortgages to those who might not qualify due to County Court Judgements. Interest rates may increase significantly if regular repayments are missed, leading to the loss of your home.

The council is not allowed to offer mortgages.

Legal advice

In order to proceed with the purchase you will need a solicitor to act on your behalf. Details of firms of solicitors in this area offering conveyancing services can be found at

www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/findasolicitor.law

It is worthwhile obtaining quotations from several solicitors for the cost of handling the purchase of your property before making your choice.

Some solicitors offer a fixed fee arrangement, whilst others charge dependent upon the purchase price of the property.

Selling your property

If you purchased prior to January 18, 2005

If you sell your home within three years of buying under the RTB scheme you will be required to repay the council a percentage of the discount that you received when buying.

If you sell within 12 months, you will repay 100% of the discount. If you sell within 2 years you will repay 60% of the discount.

If you sell within 3 years you will repay 30% of the discount. If you sell after 3 years no discount is repayable.

If you purchased on or after January 18, 2005

If you sell your home within five years of buying under the RTB scheme what you will be required to repay is a percentage of the resale value of the property, disregarding the value of any improvements.

If you sell within the first year of buying your property the full amount of discount will have to be repaid.

If you sell in the second year four fifths of the discount will need to be repaid, three fifths in the third year, two fifths in the fourth year and one fifth in the fifth year.

In addition if you purchased your property after August 2005 the council has the first option to purchase the property if you sell within 10 years of your purchase and you are, therefore, advised to consult your own solicitor.

For more information or an application form contact Miss Julia Costello on 01746 713224.