Buying Your Home
The following information is taken from the Communities and Local Government publication your right to buy you home which you can download below
We recommend that you obtain a copy of this booklet as it gives all the necessary information. However, the following provides a brief introductory overview of the key points.
What is the right to buy?
The right to buy means that you can buy your home without paying the full purchase price all at once. Your home is likely to cost less than it would if you bought it on the open market because you are entitled to discount.
What discount will I receive?
If you live in a house – between 32% and 60%
If you live in a flat – between 44% and 70%
Who as the right to buy?
Secure tenants of district councils, London Borough Councils, non-charitable housing associations or registered social landlords or housing action trusts (a full list is available in the booklet). In addition, tenants need to:
1) Have spent a total of at least 2 years as a tenant of;
a) your present landlord or
b) another right to buy landlord or
c) one of the public bodies listed in the Communities and Local Government booklet or
d) in accommodation provided by the armed forces
2) Use the house or flat as a separate home which is your only or main home
If you are an assured tenant of a registered social landlord such as ourselves, you do not have the ordinary right to buy. If you used to be a secure tenant but stopped being one when your home transferred to us from the Borough Council, you may have the preserved right to buy. Please contact us if you are unsure whether this applies to you.
Some exceptions to the right to buy
- The registered social landlord you rent it from is a charity
- You live in sheltered accommodation for the elderly, physically disabled, mentally ill or mentally disabled (there are special rules in these cases)
- Your home is particularly suitable for the elderly people and it was first let before 01/01/09 to be lived in by someone aged 60 or more
- It is being used as temporary housing until your landlord redevelops it
- You are employed by your landlord (only in some cases)
- Your landlord has rented it from somebody else and has give it back when the owner asks
