Right to buy your council home

To qualify you need to have been a public sector tenant for a minimum of 3 years.

All joint applicants must meet the stated requirements. A joint applicant could be:

• someone who shares your Tenancy.
• your spouse or civil partner.
• up to 3 family members who have lived with you for the last 12 months as their main home.

Before applying for a right to by you need to consider whether you have the required documents you need to provide for identification purposes for all Tenants to be included in the Right to Buy.

You will also need to provide, some evidence and documentation available for the dates of previous tenancies with Housing Associations or the Ministry of Defence for these to be included in the discount calculation.

Examples of Documents that can be used for ID Verification

• Photo ID for example a passport or driving licence.
• Documents with tenant’s name and current address for example a utility bill or bank statement. This evidence should be dated to show residency at the property of over 12 months.
• 3 Months of Bank Statements.

If required

Evidence of name change, for example marriage certificate.

If you are purchasing your Home with a Mortgage

In order to proceed with your Right to Buy efficiently, it is advisable to have a mortgage agreed in principle to confirm that you can complete on the purchase price for your property.

It is your responsibility to finance the purchase and future running costs of your own home. It is advisable to seek advice from a Financial Advisor.

There will be initial costs for taking up your Right to Buy, these may vary but could include:

• Stamp Duty - you can find out more about this at: 
  https://www.gov.uk/stamp-duty-land-tax
• Legal fees – a fee will be payable if you use a solicitor or other legal representative to help you with buying your home.
• Mortgage fees – these can include:
  • a fee if you use a broker to help you find a mortgage.
  • an arrangement fee to fix a mortgage rate with your mortgage lender.
  • a fee for your lender’s assessment of the market value of your property.
  • a survey fee for a professional inspection of your property (this is not the same as the assessment of market value undertaken by your mortgage lender). There are different types of survey with different costs depending on how detailed the survey is.

As a homeowner you will also have regular ongoing costs. These can include payments for:

• Mortgage / Interest Repayments
• Council tax
• water, gas, electricity, broadband and other services.
• Buildings insurance
• Contents Insurance
• Life assurance (needed to pay your mortgage if you die before the end of the mortgage period)
• Mortgage payment protection insurance (to help meet your mortgage payments if you lost your income through unemployment or ill health)
• Repair and maintenance costs to the property
• Annual service charges if you purchase a leasehold property. Details of additional costs such as service charges, repairs, maintenance and major works will be included in your offer notice. You can find more information here: https://www.lease-advice.org/

Mortgage advice

If you do need a mortgage, speak with mortgage lenders early on to make sure they are willing to lend you the money to buy your home as you will incur costs associated with buying a property such as Solicitor and Surveyor fees even if the sale does not complete.

Remember, if you do not keep up with your mortgage payments, your lender may take possession of your home.

Exclusions to the Right to Buy Scheme are listed below. If any of these apply you may be denied the Right to Buy:

• You do not have a secure tenancy, or the secure tenant has not applied.
• A joint tenant has not given their consent for the other tenant to buy on their own.
• We are unable to verify your identity.
• The property is not your main home.
• The property is adapted for special use such as disabled or elderly.
• The property is not self-contained, for example has a shared kitchen or bathroom.
• The landlord does not hold sufficient interest in the property such as a lease for a flat of less than 50 years or, for a house, less than 35 years.
• There is a court order stating you must leave your home.
• You are an ‘un-discharged bankrupt’.
• You are being declared bankrupt.
• You have made a composition or arrangement with creditors, such as, an individual or company voluntary arrangement.
• The court has suspended your Right to Buy.
• We plan to demolish your home and you have been served a Demolition Order.

If the property is sold within the first year, all the discount will need to be repaid. This reduces each year up to 5 years, for full details see the Government guide ‘Your Right to Buy Your Home’.

If you sell your property within 10 years you must first offer it back to your landlord.

In this section, please include the full postal address of the property you want to buy.

The name of the Landlord will be Melton Borough Council.

In this section, include the full names of everyone listed on your tenancy.

Make sure you tick the boxes to say whether the property is each person(s) only principal home and or property, and if they wish to buy with you.

You also need to include the full names of any family members who wish to share the Right to Buy with you.

To be included they must have lived in the property as their main home for at least the last 12 months prior to your application and they must be over 18 years of age.

In this section, please give full details of your current and previous public sector tenancies.

Make sure you have completed dates, names of tenants (Evidence will be required of any change of name by marriage or deed poll), addresses and names of landlord for your tenancies.

We hold the dates for your current tenancy and previous tenancies with Melton Borough Council.

Please sign ‘The Authority to Disclose’ to allow us to contact previous landlords for verification of dates.

In this section you must include information about any discount previously received under the Right to Buy or other government home ownership schemes, include the full address of the property purchased.

In this section, you should provide details of any improvements you have made to the property.

Your improvements may have increased the value of the property, if you disclose them in your application, the value of the improvements will not be included in the valuation of the property.

In this section, you should list the full names of everyone living in the household, and state on your application form if they want to be included or excluded from the Right to Buy.

Please make sure that the signatures of everyone listed on your tenancy agreement and any family members who want to share the Right to Buy with you, are in the right areas of the Right to Buy 1 form.

Make sure all signatures are in the right place and dated correctly. This will include signatures of: 

• tenants who wish to buy the property.
• tenants who do not wish to share the Right to Buy.
• family members at the property who are not tenants but want to share the Right to Buy.