Shared ownership experiences - good and bad

[Bumblebee]

Our first house was SO and as someone else said even though it was owned 50/50 us and the housing association (you could only be offered what you would have been if you had been offered a council house. So for us it was a 2bed house) all repairs were down to us. We had a few issues with the build and it was all down to use to sort out and take up with the builders.

Not only did we pay rent as well as the mortgage we had to pay buildings insurance under the associations preference. We couldn’t shop around for a better deal. Also had to prove contents insurance each year.

There was also a service charge and ground rent to pay as it was a new build on a new build estate. Only a small one of 10 houses but was a few hundred a year plus £20 ish a month for grounds maintenance. Which was a Gardner coming twice in the summer to cut the grass!

When it came to selling we had to allow the association to find us a buyer first. After 3/4 months we hadn’t had a single viewer so after complaining we were allowed to put it on the open market for the 50/50 share. Which meant anyone could buy and they didn’t need to be on the council list. A first time buyer brought it and our neighbours complained as it was a single young man and everyone else was family’s. But the association let the buyer buy. He’s still there now.

We were fortunate enough to be moving to a much bigger property without SO. We did look at stair casing but there were lots of hidden charges and not hidden charges. So it made more sense for us to sell up and move. We were also fortunate enough that we had made a huge profit on it even having to give 50% of the profit to the HA.

I would seriously consider all other options and assess whether owning any part of a property is really better than renting for a few more years.

 

[Alice Roosevelt Longworth]

We read some horror stories before we bought shared ownership, but it's worked out really well for us!

We could afford a budget of max £250k in London when we were looking to buy in 2013. It was do-able but all of the properties that we saw over a 6 month period would have required significant work done to them, and we just didn't have the budget to put money into a fixer upper.

A shared ownership development popped up in an area that we really liked, and we ended up buying a 40% share of a £360k property in 2014.

A few years after buying our 40% share, my husband completed his Master's degree and received a huge promotion. Shortly afterwards, I was headhunted and my salary almost doubled.

4 years after buying shared ownership, we found ourselves in the position to staircase to 100%, and our home is now valued at £400k.

It's worked out brilliantly for us, though some of our neighbours who didn't staircase to the full 100% had trouble selling their homes as the housing association had first dibs at trying to sell their property over a 2 month period before they were allowed to advertise with agents.

 

[Wesleysniper]

From my experience it's a complete con, I've been on shared ownership since 2005 I have 50% ownership flat on a 125 year lease in the London area, maintenance costs are going through the roof they don't have to show quotations they got for the work they don't tell you what work they have done until you get your end of year bill to say they under estimated the bill by £550 per resident in the block dont itemise the bill to the penny, so instead of them working out that £550 set over the next 12 months they demand you pay it straight away and I'm not say all housing associations are like that but my one is, the one thing i recommend people to do is read your lease if you break your lease agreement and they take you to a county court over it and the judgement falls on their side they can take away the property and you lose every little penny you put into it and there have been cases already happened with this scenario, if you have a lease on a house and it's less than 80 years on it you are going to pay an arm and a leg to renew it you could be looking at around £15000 upwards if it totally runs out you forfeit the property at some point you won't get a mortgage for it so you can only sell or buy with cash some housing associations ask for a permission fee if you want to do alterations i have a friend his housing want £250 everytime you ask to alter something, when you come to sell the property you better get use to dancing to their tune you have to pay them a percentage if they sell it you have to pay all their legal fees you pay the valuation fee and it goes on and on and on if you want to stay on shared ownership and buy out of area goodluck you might and I mean might be lucky and get a property out of area but you'll have better odds in winning the lottery jackpot I could spend hours rambling on and on about the pitfalls on shared ownership and it definitely ain't shared ownership when it comes to paying the bill. If my housing associations had to pay 50% of their share of the maintenance bill they send they would definitely find the cheapest quotes to get the jobs done their definitely no shared in ownership it's all down to you to carry the can, if you want to staircase maybe get a valuation done when the housing market crashes but I bet they have a loophole to stop you staircasing, i would try finding a very good mortgage broker to see what you can get on the open market and if all fails try going shared ownership

 

[Drea1984]

Has anyone had experience of buying their council property?

 

[Ponponpon]

I haven't had a shared ownership property, but I am joint executor for my BIL's estate which includes a SO property. We could have sold his place 4 times by now but each buyer didn't meet the housing associations criteria for the rental side, even though all had mortgage agreements in situ/were a cash buyer. It's just delaying the grief process for us all. The housing association gives zero fucks as they get their rent anyway, and when he died and we went to tell them, their response was "who else can take on the rent?" and when we said no one, they said "oh, according to this he has an 18 year old daughter, she can can't she?". We were pissed to say the least.

OP - I know this is a different stance to what you wanted, but the sell on criteria can be tough.

 

[Hello Kitty]

My sister has a shared ownership flat, she's had it for about 5 years and will be selling soon. My friend also lives in the same block and has been there about a year. They both love where they live but the Housing Association who they pay the rent to are a nightmare and are useless and the service charge is alot too.

Where they live the flats sell pretty quick and if they cannot find a S/O buyer, it can go on the open market and they sell pretty quick too.

 

[Gggshh]

We have A 50% share and bought our 3 bed house worth 320k in 2017. No regrets for us, it is a house we never want to leave in an amazing area and we could never have afforded to live around here otherwise.

I think my opinion would be different if I lived in a development or blockof flats and had to pay maintenance etc, ours was a resale so rent hasn’t increased by much over the years (I’m assuming they can only increase by so much a year?). Our rent on 50% is £190 a month, we put down 16k deposit and paying £490 a month on mortgage of 144k

we do plan to buy the other half eventually. And yes it is all up to the owner to do repairs etc which we don’t mind as we know we want to live here forever.

got family living very close by on new build estate and the rent on the other half is astronomical, so I would advise if anyone is thinking about SO to look for resale properties! They are usually listed on the housing associations website, our house has needed a lot of work done but was livable and 3 years on we have done loads just the garden to look at then the kitchen in about five years time.

 

[Bogwoppit]

Has anyone had experience of buying their council property?

Yes I have

 

[Drea1984]

Yes I have

Did you have to have a big deposit? I have heard they take the equity in the property as a deposit? Was that your experience? Thanks

 

[Bogwoppit]

Did you have to have a big deposit? I have heard they take the equity in the property as a deposit? Was that your experience? Thanks

We didn’t pay a deposit, we had a very big discount on our house as already been living in it for 5 yrs, but if we sold the house within 10 years of buying it the discount would have to be paid back & also the council would have first refusal to buy back the property too, we bought it just over 12 yrs ago the mortgage is cheaper than paying rent, we did our mortgage through a broker on the right to buy, it’s worth contacting your local council for more information, it took 4 months from start to finish to complete.

 

[Drea1984]

Thank you. I’ve been a tenant for 25 but doubt I’d get a mortgage on my own on my salary really. Did you dispute the first price the council gave you? I’ve heard you can. Also at my age I don’t think I’d get a 25 year mortgage. It’s a massive regret not buying 20 years ago but I suppose my circumstances were different then

 

[Bogwoppit]

Thank you. I’ve been a tenant for 25 but doubt I’d get a mortgage on my own on my salary really. Did you dispute the first price the council gave you? I’ve heard you can. Also at my age I don’t think I’d get a 25 year mortgage. It’s a massive regret not buying 20 years ago but I suppose my circumstances were different then

No didn’t dispute the price as it was so cheap, it’s really worth a try though I know someone else who bought their council property they have a 22 yr mortgage due to being older & retirement age.

 

[Drea1984]

Oh I see. Thank you for your help! I will give it a go I think. It’s an amazing investment I reckon.

 

[Charl28]

Can anyone give me some advice on shared ownership we have a three bedroom house and own 50%... it’s a gorgeous hoise in a great location but the kitchen isn’t very big what are the ins and outs of making changes internally to the house?!

 

[Hello Kitty]

Can anyone give me some advice on shared ownership we have a three bedroom house and own 50%... it’s a gorgeous hoise in a great location but the kitchen isn’t very big what are the ins and outs of making changes internally to the house?!

My sister was told anything inside is down to her to fix/deal with as they only repair external and communal areas

Obviously she would need permission if she wanted to knock a wall down inside the property but things like a new bathroom and kitchen was fine.

 

[purplepixie_3]

Can anyone give me some advice on shared ownership we have a three bedroom house and own 50%... it’s a gorgeous hoise in a great location but the kitchen isn’t very big what are the ins and outs of making changes internally to the house?!

You need to check the special conditions. If in doubt, contact the party you are in shared ownership with and get any consent or acknowledgment of works in writing. When you come to sell, if you’ve breached conditions it is a massive ballache (and bloody expensive!) to rectify it

If it’s shared ownership is with the local authority please bear in mind that the planning department giving you consent is not the same as the shared ownership department giving you consent! Part of the planning permission conditions is to comply with any consents (mortgages, covenants etc).

 

[Charl28]

In a few years I would like to swap my downstairs loo to my under the stairs cupboard and knock my kitchen wall down to make the kitchen bigger this is the reply I got from Walsall housing group

My sister was told anything inside is down to her to fix/deal with as they only repair external and communal areas

Obviously she would need permission if she wanted to knock a wall down inside the property but things like a new bathroom and kitchen was fine.

Basically all I want to know is can I knock a wall down I would be adding value to property by making kitchen bigger c

 

[thatstupidcat]

It’s sad that the average person have more rights when it comes to buying a toaster than a house.

I think there was a court case a couple of years ago. It was along the lines of lady had shared ownership, paid a deposit and her mortgage diligently. She later fell behind on the rent for the remainder as she paid rent to the developer for the proportion of the property she didn’t “own”.

Developer moved to evict and succeeded, and she didn’t get either her deposit or mortgage payments or equity she “owned” back.

It seems a bit like a shady car repo business but with crappy new builds with warranties that you can’t even wipe your backside with.

If you’re going ahead, make sure you don’t be cheap and use the developer’s solicitor, get your own specialist. Keep in mind that ground rents / maintenance / service charges typically compound so you may start out paying £100/year, but it only goes up.

And you have no say if the developer / holding company that owns the other proportion of your equity is sold on and terms of your contract that weren’t enforced start getting enforced to realise the new owner’s investment.

Also, you might find yourself stuck in a one or two bedroom forever because you cannot raise the equity or deposit to move up the ladder.

Caveat emptor!

 

[purplepixie_3]

In a few years I would like to swap my downstairs loo to my under the stairs cupboard and knock my kitchen wall down to make the kitchen bigger this is the reply I got from Walsall housing group


Basically all I want to know is can I knock a wall down I would be adding value to property by making kitchen bigger c

The email says anything that will affect structural layout you must get permission. Removing a downstairs loo, knocking out the wall and increasing floor space of your kitchen is altering the layout.

 

[Charl28]

The email says anything that will affect structural layout you must get permission. Removing a downstairs loo, knocking out the wall and increasing floor space of your kitchen is altering the layout.

Is there a chance they will give me permission though?