What is Affordable Home Ownership?
Affordable home ownership consists of a variety of schemes that help people who would not normally be able to purchase a home of their own on the open market. Shared Ownership is the main type of affordable home ownership offered by Connect Housing also known as part rent/part buy because shared owners buy a share in their home and pay rent on the rest. Shared owners do not share their homes with someone else, they share the ownership of it with a housing association.
Who is Shared Ownership for?
Shared ownership is designed to help people who cannot afford to buy the type of home that they need on the open market. In most instances existing council and housing association tenants and people registered for
housing with the council are given priority but other people can also benefit from shared ownership. Most shared-owners are first-time buyers, others are people who have had to leave their owner occupied home because of a relationship breakdown.
How does Shared Ownership Work?
The size of the share you can buy will vary from scheme to scheme, however the minimum share will normally be 25%. Shared owners pay a monthly rent to us for the share that they have not purchased. On some new developments, there will be no rent payable as the terms of the lease are different from the standard shared ownership lease. There will normally be a service charge to cover items such as buildings insurance, management and cleaning of any common areas.
Your Income
We think it’s important not to encourage people to take on shared ownership if they cannot realistically afford it. For this reason, we have set minimum income levels for applicants as shown below.
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Single Applicants £17,000 per annum
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Joint Applicants £22,000 per annum
If you would be able to put a large cash sum towards a purchase you may qualify with a lower income. Please remember that these figures are the minimum levels needed to get onto our shared ownership list.
Your Savings
To be accepted onto our shared ownership list you need savings. This money will be required to cover
legal, other professional fees and stamp duty.
Again, this is a minimum figure. If you were to buy a new property in a high value area, you would need to have access to additional savings.
How do we choose between applicants?
We have an Allocation Policy, a copy of which can be supplied on request. Briefly, we try to help the people who are in most need and whose income is sufficient to meet the costs of buying through Shared Ownership.
We give priority to first-time buyers who fall into the following categories:
a) Tenants of a Local Authority or Housing Association;
b) People registered on the waiting list of a Housing Association or Local Authority;
c) People moving into the area to take up employment;
d) Other first time buyers in housing need, who are unable to afford the costs of buying a house outright.
e) People who need to move house due to a relationship breakdown.
What size of property would we consider you for?
Generally applicants will be considered for the size of accommodation that they need as set out below.
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1 Bedroom - single person or couple
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2 Bedrooms - 1 or 2 parents with no more than 2 children who are also of the same sex. Some two bedroom properties may be offered to couple or single people if there are no suitable applicants from a higher
priority household.
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3 Bedrooms - 1 or 2 parents with no more than 3 children. It is unlikely that the Association will have any larger properties for sale.
What happens if we offer you a property?
If we are considering you for a property, we will first ask you to attend a detailed interview. During the
interview we will discuss shared ownership in general and what you will need to do in order to purchase a property. The issues that we will discuss will include the following:
At this time we will also ask you to provide documentation to verify the details you provided on your application
form, particularly your income and savings. Most shared ownership properties are initially sold on 125-year leases. If you were to purchase a property from an existing shared owner (known as a re-sale) only part of the original term would remain.
Your Lease
This is a legal document that sets out the rights and responsibilities of the Association and the Shared Owner. It contains information on who has responsibility for specific repairs, when and by how much the rent can be increased, how the service charge is calculated as well as details on the things you and the Association can and cannot do. Every lease is different, so we strongly recommend that you look carefully at the one for your property.
Repairs
Leaseholders are normally responsible for carrying out all repairs to their own property. The only exceptions to this are for new properties built or aquired by the Association which are still covered by the builder's guarantee (usually for 1 or 2 years). Also owners living in blocks of flats will contribute to a separate fund for long-term repairs to their roof, doors, windows and external painting.
Insurance
The Association has a block buildings insurance policy on all our properties which is included in your service charge. This protects against any damage to the fabric of the building which has been caused by an insurable event e.g. storm or flood damage.
In some cases, especially if you are living in an apartment building, you will have a separate buildings insurance provider arranged by your management company who are responsible for informing you who to contact and the correct procedure to follow in respect of making a claim.
Contents Insurance
The Association does NOT insure the contents and fittings of your home and shared owners are advised to
arrange their own cover.
Gas Safety
It is important to remember that as a homeowner you will be responsible for the maintenance of all gas
appliances and flues in your home. You should ensure that you arrange an annual safety check of your boiler and any other gas appliance by a Gas Safe registered company. Failure to do so could have serious consequences- you could be putting yourself and others at risk.
Depending on your circumstances you may be eligible for a free gas check. For more information on free gas checks look on the back of your gas bill, contact your gas supplier or energywatch on 08459 06 07 08.
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