Catherine Baines
Residential Conveyancing Solicitor
Phone: 0113 200 7480
Email: property@averywalters.com
Leeds Residential Conveyancing - Tenants Right to Buy (RTB) Scheme
What is the tenants Right to Buy (RTB) scheme?
The Right to Buy (RTB) scheme was introduced in 1980 by the UK government to allow most council housing, and some housing association, tenants to purchase a property they live in at a discounted price. In the current system, the maximum discount received can be 70% off the purchase price - up to a total of £108,000 in London or £80,900 anywhere else in England.
Who is eligible for buying under the right to buy?
There are certain criteria that must be met before you have the right to purchase your council house. This criteria includes:
The property is your only or main place of residence
You have had a public sector landlord for a total of 3 years (non-consecutively is acceptable)
It’s self-contained
Joint applications are also accepted, and these applications have their own criteria. You are entitled to make a joint application with:
Someone who shares your tenancy
Up to 3 family members who’ve lived with you for the past 12 months.
If you are looking at buying a property under the right to buy, Avery Walters Right to Buy conveyancing solicitors can help. Call us today for a free initial consultation with our conveyancing solicitor team.
Contact our licensed conveyancing solicitors by calling our Leeds law firm on 0113 200 7480 or Harrogate law firm on 01423 564551. We are ready to help you with the first registration of land.
What is the process when buying under the right to buy?
The process for purchasing a property under the RTB scheme is very straight forward.
You instruct Avery Walters to write to the Housing Authority for the appropriate documents required for your purchase.
If you require a mortgage for your purchase, you will need searches completing. Mortgage lenders always require local and drainage searches, For instance, in Nottingham or Selby (and other former mining areas) mining searches will need to be required.
Avery Walters will go through any Title documents received and send you the plans of the property. We will complete further checks, such as that the property has sufficient rights to the nearest public road. We also send you a Report on the title.
Throughout the process, we will be on hand to advise you on all issues. If you are able to come into our Leeds right to buy lawyers office, that would allow us to meet and discuss your individual situation. If you are unable to come to the office, this can be done via a telephone call.
When all the following are ready we can complete the purchase of your RTB property:
Confirmation of a mortgage offer
Satisfactory replies to all of our searches
The housing authority has satisfactorily dealt with our enquiries.
Although RTB conveyancing is fairly straight forward, there are certain things that you need to be aware of when purchasing a property through tenants right to buy:
Repayment of Discount – If you purchase a property under a discount, all or some of this has to be repaid if you sell the property within 5 years of buying it.
Right to Buyback within 10 years – If you sell within 10 years of purchase you have to offer to sell it to your former Landlord (the Housing Authority) or another social Landlord, in the first instance. This is known as the right of pre-emption. If the property is bought back, it must be at the then market value. If there is no agreement to price the district valuer will value the property.
Contact our Right to Buy solicitors
If you are looking at buying a property under the Right to Buy scheme, we can help, Avery Walters are right to buy lawyers and our Leeds residential conveyancing services can help you when you are buying an RTB property. Contact us today for a free initial consultation with our experienced team of right to buy solicitors.
Our team of right to buy lawyers can be contacted by calling our Leeds residential property solicitors team on 0113 200 7480 or Harrogate team on 01423 564551. We are ready to help you when completing any Right to Buy property.
* Laura Stafford is the SFE accredited memberand a full member of STEP