Right to Buy Solicitors

The Right to Buy scheme allows most council home tenants and some housing association tenants to buy their council property at a discount.

The scheme was originally introduced in the Housing Act 1980 and although it has been abolished in Wales and Scotland it is still available in England and Northern Ireland.

You will need to complete an RTB1 form, which can be found here. Once you have completed and signed the form you need to send this to your landlord. Your landlord then has four weeks to respond to your application, or eight weeks if they have been your landlord for less than three years.

If your landlord declines your application, they must state their reasons for doing so. You will only be able to appeal this decision if the landlord has declined your offer because the property is suitable for elderly people.

If your landlord accepts your application they will send you an offer, which needs to be sent within eight weeks of their agreeing to the sale if you’re buying a freehold property, or 12 weeks if you’re buying a leasehold property. The offer will include information about:

• The price they think you should pay for the property and how they have worked it out
• Your level of discount and how they worked it out
• A description of the property and any land include in the price
• Estimates of service charges for the first five years
• Any known problems with the property’s structure

After receiving your landlord’s offer, you will have 12 weeks to decide if you want to buy the property. If you do not agree with your landlord’s offer you have three months within getting the offer to write to them and ask for an independent valuation. A district valuer from HM Revenue and Customs will visit your property to carry out a valuation. You then have 12 weeks to accept HMRC’s valuations or pull out of the sale.

You might need to pay stamp duty depending on the value of the property. Stamp duty is a one-off tax you pay when you buy a property, and the amount is based on a percentage of the purchase price. It varies according to the property value, and some lower-value properties may be exempt.

Preserved Right to Buy applies if:

• Your home used to be a council property but was sold to another public sector landlord whilst you were living in it; or
• After your home was sold by the council to a new landlord, you moved into a different property owned by the same landlord

You will also still need to fulfil the main eligibility criteria for Right to Buy as well

Right to Acquire has similar eligibility criteria as Right to Buy but allows most housing association tenants to buy their home at a discount, although the discount is only up to £16,000.

To be eligible for Right to Acquire, your property must have been either:

• Built or bought by a housing association after 31^st March 1997; or
• Transferred from a local council to a housing association after 31^st March 1997

Yes, you can borrow more on a Right to Buy mortgage, but it is advised that you talk to your landlord as well as your mortgage adviser and your local authority, who will have to approve the additional borrowing. It is also worth being aware that only a small number of lenders offer additional money on a right to buy mortgage and some only allow additional funding for home improvements.

No, in most cases lenders will accept a Right to Buy discount instead, but it is worth checking as not all do.

The amount of discount you can get depends on:

• How long you’ve been a tenant with a public sector landlord
• Whether you’re buying a flat or house
• The value of your home

If you’re buying the property with someone else, you count the years of whoever has been a public sector tenant the longest. You will also get a smaller discount if you have used Right to Buy in the past, or less discount if your landlord has spent money building or maintaining your home. If you sell your home within five years you usually have to repay some or all of your discount.

For houses you get a 35% discount if you have been a public sector tenant for between 3 and 5 years, and after 5 years the discount goes up 1% for every year you’ve been a public sector tenant, up to a maximum of 70% or £84,600 across England and £112,800 in London boroughs.

If you live in a flat you get a 50% discount if you have been a public sector tenant for between 3 and 5 years, after 5 years the discount goes up 2% for each extra year you have been a public sector tenant, up to a maximum of 70% or £84,600 across England and £112,800 in London boroughs.