As a leaseholder you have special rights and responsibilities for your home. The lease is a legal contract between you and Trent & Dove that sets out our responsibilities.

As a shared owner you have a leasehold interest in the property and Trent & Dove is the landlord.

When you purchased the property your solicitor would have given you a copy of your lease. If you have a mortgage on the property your mortgage lender may also hold a copy. You may also be able to obtain a copy from the Land Registry.

A shared ownership lease typically lasts for 125 or 99 years from the date the first person bought a share in the property. The length of the lease decreases over time.

If the property is sold to a new shared owner, the lease is assigned to the new owner – a new lease is not created. It is possible to extend the term of a shared ownership lease.

Your responsibilities

• Pay your rent and buildings insurance

• Take out contents insurance

• Maintain your home and carry out your own repairs

• Pay a service charge if there are communal areas to be maintained

• Contact us if you want to move out of the property or buy more shares

• Ask our permission if you want to carry out alterations

• Let us into the property after giving you notice to view the condition of the property or to repair an adjoining property or communal areas.

• Arrange regular gas servicing of any gas appliances.

Trent & Dove’s responsibilities

• Ensure buildings insurance is in place

• Maintain and repair any unadopted communal or shared areas, roads or grounds and the structure of apartments

• Collect the rent and any service charge payments from you and notify you of any changes

• Provide easy access to services.

 

How do I buy more shares in my shared ownership property?

You can buy more shares in your home; this is known as ‘staircasing’. You can usually buy additional shares in stages (minimum share 10%), right up to 100% so you own the property outright.

There may be staircasing restrictions in some rural areas and older person schemes; please check with us before you commit to buy.

You’ll need to get in touch with Trent & Dove who’ll arrange for your home to be valued by an independent RICS surveyor, so you can agree how much you’ll pay for additional shares. It’s down to you to pay the valuation fee, solicitor’s fees and any administration fees that Trent & Dove charge.

Contact our Legal team for more information legal@trentanddove.org

How do I sell my shared ownership property?

As a shared owner, you can move on by selling the share you own to another eligible person. If you decide to sell your share you will need to instruct an independent RICS valuer to set the selling price. Trent & Dove usually have 8 weeks to nominate a purchaser. Please do not instruct an estate agent before you have contacted us.

Any potential purchaser will need to be approved by Trent & Dove to ensure they are eligible for shared ownership.

Once you’ve found a buyer you’ll need to instruct a solicitor to act in the sale of your home.

You will be responsible for paying the valuation fee and your legal fees

Contact us for more information. sharedownership@trentanddove.org

I am already a shared owner, can I buy again?

Yes, there are no restrictions which prevent existing shared owners from applying for and moving into another shared ownership property.

However, you must continue to meet the general eligibility criteria of earning less per household than £80,000 and be otherwise unable to afford to purchase unassisted.

Existing shared owners are also required to have disposed of their existing shared ownership property at the point of purchase.

Can I extend the term of my shared ownership lease?

A shared ownership lease typically lasts for 125 years or 99 years from the commencement date in the lease. Your solicitor should have given you a copy of your lease when you bought the property. You can obtain a copy of your lease from Land Registry by paying a small fee.

When there is less than 70 - 80 years left on your lease, it can affect the value of the property and it might be more difficult to sell the property.

If the shared ownership property is sold the original lease is assigned to the new shared owner rather than a new lease being created.

Mortgage lenders are often unwilling to provide a mortgage on a property where there are less than 85 years left on the lease.

There is no statutory right to a lease extension. We will consider granting lease extensions on shared ownership leases on an individual basis.

You will need to take legal advice before deciding to proceed with a lease extension and there will be costs involved.

Contact out Leasehold team for further information: leaseholdteam@trentanddove.org