Shared Ownership Mortgages

To apply for a shared ownership scheme, you must: 

• Earn £80,000 or less and £90,000 or less in London. 
• Be a first-time buyer- it could be that you previously owned a home but now can’t afford one. 
• You recently possessed a home but cannot pay for one now.
• You are looking to form another household due to situations such as divorce, separation, or relationship breakdown. 
• You have previously been a shared owner but are now looking to move. 

Senior Citizens:

If you are 55 or above, you can purchase up to 75% of the property value through the ‘older people’s shared ownership’ (OPSO) scheme. Once you are the owner of 75% of the property, you are exempted from paying rent on the rest of the property. 

Disable people: 

If you are someone with a disability, you can apply for the ‘people with a long-term disability (HOLD) scheme; This is for those who may need special needs that are not met by other schemes, such as needing one story or ground floor house. 

Military members: 

There are cases where many individuals make offers on one particular property. If you are a part of the military or have served in the armed forces in the past, then your offer will be prioritised. 

It would help to plan all your costs when buying a new house through shared ownership. Once you have chosen the property you want to buy, your landlord will hand you over to a mortgage consultant who will examine your monetary outgoings and income to see if you can afford all the costs for your new home. 

Below are the costs that are involved in the process: 

• Reservation fee
• Buying payment 
• Services expenses 
• Estate charges 
• Management cost 
• Repair reserve budget

For more details on these costs, contact us today for your free mortgage advice consultation, through which we will explain every little detail to you.  

In a shared ownership agreement, you are required to pay rent in the share of the property you don’t own. If the property you are buying a newly built home, then the rent limit will be 3% of the market value of the landlord’s share. However, most landlords charge a 2.75% rent value. If the property is a re-sale home, the rent will be the same as the previous owner paid. 

The landlord reviews the rent at the time mentioned on the lease, usually once a year. When reviewed, your rent may increase but does not decrease. The increased rent is directly proportional to the RPI (retail price index). If the RPI is 0% for one year, the rent can go up by 0.5% max, not more than that. Remember that the more shares you own in your shared owner agreement, the less rent you have to pay. 

The process of shares ownership comprises four steps: 

• Complete and register your application form:

Firstly, you must enlist yourself with a help-to-buy representative in the area you want to purchase a property. After that, you can sign in to your account on the help-to-buy website and fill out your application form, known as the ‘affordable home ownership application.’ It will take approximately ten minutes to complete the application. You can also perform this step manually by ordering the form to be posted to your residence. 

• Contact the landlord of the property you want to buy:

After your petition has been authorized, you can now start looking for the home you want to purchase and register yourself with the respected landlord. The landlord will then submit you to a suitable mortgage advisor (like us), so your financial stability can be checked. 

• Reserve your home:

If all goes well, then you will have to pay a reservation fee which will make sure that no one else can reserve the property. The reservation fee is usually up to £500 and is deducted from the final amount you pay for the property on the completion day. 

• Legal help:

You will now need a level representative to handle all the legal paperwork for transferring the ownership of the property to you, which is known as the ‘Conveyancing’ process.

No matter what fraction of the estate you own, you will need to pay for some part of the repair and maintenance of the estate. Below we have listed the repairs that are included: 

• Your landlord is responsible for: 

o The expenses for the outside of the building.

o The costs of inside maintenance, such as walls, floors, ceilings, and stairs. 

• As a share owner, you are also given the liability of claiming £500 each year for the provision of fixtures and fittings such as:  

o For water and gas supplies such as pipes, sinks, and bathtubs. 

o Heating facilities such as boilers and radiators. 

These fixtures do not include

o Kitchen cabinets or fittings of beds and sofas 

o Installation of gas, electricity, or water supply appliances such as washing machines or ovens. 

If any clause in your lease is violated, the landlord is not required to pay for any provision or restoration, which they would usually be responsible for; this will take place if:

o Any damage is caused intentionally.

o You cannot organise regular maintenance services, for instance, regular boiler services.

Yes, you can sell in an open market if you own 100% of the property. If you don’t own 100%, you must contact your landlord, who will look for a buyer to sell your share in the property. 

You can sublet or rent a specific part of the home, but it is necessary that you also live there too. You do not have the authorization to rent the whole property unless: 

o You are a 100% owner of the home

o The landlord has permitted you to sublet.