Sell your home

If you’d like to sell your home, we have to go through four stages. Here's how it works

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Here's how it works

Step one

Choose which marketing option you want to go with

In your lease it says we have the right to sell your home to another shared owner. But we believe in giving you a choice. So you’ve got two options:

Option one:

If you want to sell 100% of your home, we’ll advertise it for two weeks on the Help to Buy website. And if it doesn’t attract any potential buyers, you can advertise it on the open market with an estate agent (and pay their fees). If we find a buyer, our fees could be up to 2% of sale price.

Option two:

We’ll advertise your share or 100% of your home for eight weeks and tell you at the end if we’ve found a buyer. And if it doesn’t attract any potential buyers, you can advertise your share or the whole home on the open market with an estate agent (and pay their fees). If we find a buyer, our fees could be up to 2% of sale price

 

Things to think about before you choose:

  • To make sure the right people have the right opportunities, some shared ownership homes have restrictions on how much of the home you can buy and who can own it (things like: you can only buy a maximum of 80% from us. Or, it can be only sold to local people, for example)

  • If you think this might apply to your home, please get in touch with us right away

  • Please check your lease for any restrictions before your home goes on the market

 

Step two

Arrange (and pay for) a valuation of your home

To find how much your home is worth you need to arrange a valuation.

 

  • The valuation must be done by a RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) qualified surveyor. We can’t use a ‘mortgage’ valuation or 'estate agents' valuation

  • You’ll need to pay for it to be done

  • It will be valid for three months (if the sale doesn’t go through in this time you’ll need to get a more up-to-date valuation)

  • You can normally get your valuation updated at a cut price, as the surveyor won’t have to visit again.

To make it easier for you, here are a list of local valuers that are RICS qualified. You’re free to find another RICS valuer if you’d prefer.

Valuers we recommend

  • All areas - Bartley West Surveyors | 02380 861123 or Gully Howard Technical Ltd | 02392 728040

  • Portsmouth area - Chandler Hawkins | 02392 820420

  • Southampton area - Now Survey | 02380 224189

  • Aldershot area - Cresswell Associates | 01252 515551

  • Woking/Guildford area - Frazers Surveyors Ltd | 01483 730909

 

Step three

Send us all the documents we need, which includes lots of pictures and we’ll market your home

If you still want to go ahead after you’ve received your valuation, you need to fill in this agreement form and send us:

 

  • A copy of the valuation report

  • An EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) for your home. You can find that out here

  • Some photos of your home (in JPEG format please)

What happens next?

  • Once we have all of these, we’ll have your home on the market within 48 hours

  • We use an outside company to market your home

  • They’ll be in touch to arrange viewings

  • Remember, you must continue to pay your rent all the time we’re dealing with the sale. if you don’t, you’ll be breaking your contract with us and the sale will have to stop

 

Step four

Once a buyer is found, our solicitor will produce a legal pack and pass it to your solicitors

The solicitors will manage the process until it’s time for you to move out

  • Once you’ve paid for the legal pack - it will cost around £250 - it’s up to your solicitor to ask our solicitor for it

  • We allow up to 10 working days for our solicitor to prepare the legal pack and send it to yours

  • On average, selling your home takes between three to five months (but this isn’t guaranteed)

  • Your solicitor will also be responsible for collecting a share of the service charge from the new owners. This will cover their share of the rent and service charge for the month when completion takes place

  • We strongly recommend you use a solicitor that’s used to dealing with shared ownership leases and customer contracts. Things often take longer if you use a solicitor who doesn’t have experience in shared ownership deals

Here’s a list of solicitors who have experience in shared ownership work. You can, of course, find another firm of solicitors if you like:

  • Abels Solicitors - Southampton | 02380 220317

  • Eric Robinson Solicitors - Bitterne | 02380 425000

  • Galloway Hughes Solicitors - Surrey | 01372 237070

  • Jasper Vincent Solicitors - Fareham | 01329 285341

FAQs

On average, a sale takes between three and five months. But it’s difficult to put an exact time on it because we don’t have control over lots of things (including how long it takes to find a buyer and how long the buyer takes to find a mortgage offer etc).

 

But we can promise you:

When we’re marketing the homes

Once you send us all the information we need (including the agreement form, valuation, EPC, photos) we’ll get it on the market within 48 hours.

When our solicitors are working on it

  • Our solicitor will provide your solicitor with a legal pack. Once you’ve paid for the legal pack it’s up to your solicitor to ask our solicitor for it
  • We allow up to 10 working days for our solicitor to prepare the legal pack and send to yours
    • We really recommend you use a solicitor who’s used to dealing with shared ownership leases. We find it makes things go a lot more smoothly and quickly
  • To find out how everything is going, you need to speak to your solicitor only
  • You’re not, by law, allowed to speak to our solicitor about anything as this is seen as a ‘conflict of interest’
  • All the information your solicitors will need to do the sale for you will be in the legal pack they get from our solicitors
  • If your solicitor needs any extra information they’ll need to get it themselves, this will be explained at the beginning of the process
  • We’re sorry but our staff can’t answer any legal questions you have, you’ll need to ask your solicitor any questions

It doesn’t matter if you sell through us or an estate agent, it’s up to you to pay for the valuation, legal pack, selling fee and solicitors costs.

 

  • Valuation - You’re also responsible for the valuation fee. Remember it must be a RICS surveyor valuation. If your sale takes longer than three months, you’ll need to get your valuation updated. And you will have to pay extra
  • Selling fee - If we sell a shared ownership home we charge a selling fee of up to 2% of the sale price. Check your lease for what you should expect to pay
  • Your solicitor’s costs - Once you’ve found a buyer for your home you’ll need to find a solicitor to work for you. You’re responsible for all their fees. Please ask for a breakdown of charges direct from your solicitor
  • Legal fees -  You'll need to pay for our legal fees and approximately £250 for our solicitor to produce a legal pack that your solicitor will need

The legal pack will include:

  1. Information about the service charge for your property (including three years audited accounts)
  2. Insurance
  3. Any major work that’s planned or that you know needs doing
  4. A fire risk assessment (if you’re selling an apartment)
  • Your solicitor’s responsible for collecting a share of the service charge from the new owners
  • This covers their share of the rent and service charge for the month when completion took place
  • As most sales happen part way through the accounting year, your solicitor isn’t usually able to see the final accounts until these are available a few months after the end of the accounting year (end of March)
  • So, your solicitor will hold your service charges back until the end of year accounts are in. It means that payments can be taken or paid back to whoever was living there at the time. It keeps it nice and fair

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