Residents guide to... Selling your shared ownership home

Transcription

1 Residents guide to... Selling your shared ownership home

2 Residents guide to... Selling your shared ownership home You can sell your shared ownership property at any time. Your lease gives Saxon Weald the right to find you a buyer. This allows us to offer your property as a shared ownership option, the same as when you bought it. This short leaflet will explain the process you need to follow. Informing us You need to call us to let us know you wish to sell your share in the property. We will then confirm in writing that we do not wish to purchase the share from you and ask that you instruct a valuation within two weeks from the date of the letter. Instructing your valuation The price of your home will be based on an open market valuation. This has to be instructed and paid for by you, and carried out by an independent chartered surveryor who is a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). We can advise you on surveyors that other homeowners or Saxon Weald have used, or you can use a surveyor of your choice. Your valuation sets the price of your share and you cannot sell for more than this amount. Once you have the valuation, you should send it to us as quickly as possible as the valuation is only valid for 12 weeks (three months) from the date on the report and will need updating if a buyer is still not found. We will need a valid valuation to complete the sale. In a changing market property prices can go down as well as up. Information available on websites can give a general indication of property movements, but they don t replace the individual expertise of a RICS qualified valuer. 2

3 ? For Sale Once we have received your valuation we can start selling your home. Get an energy performance certificate (EPC) By law, there needs to be a valid energy performance certificate for the property before marketing can commence. If your property was built or purchased after 2008, you should have a copy of this as they are valid for 10 years. Should you need to arrange for one, your valuer may be able to recommend an assessor or we can provide you with contact details. Alternatively you should be able to find a provider online. The cost should be somewhere between 50 and 100. We will upload your property details on our website and also register your property details on the Help to Buy website. The Help to Buy agent allows potential buyers to register their interest, assesses their eligibility and works with housing associations to keep all applicants informed of all relevant properties. It s your responsibility to provide Saxon Weald with any photographs for the purpose of marketing the property. We can accept photographs taken by an idependent person, or the valuer, in line with the property Misdescriptions Act

4 Residents guide to... Viewings Suitable buyers will be referred to you by telephone. They will be invited to contact you direct to arrange a mutually convenient time for a viewing. Timings Saxon Weald has eight weeks from receiving your valuation in which to nominate a buyer. The buyer will attend a financial interview with us, just as you did, and we will advise you once they are approved. We will then put the purchaser s solicitor in touch with your solicitor to progress the sale. The commission payable by you, as outlined in your lease, is normally 1% of the market value of your percentage share in the property. If exchange cannot take place within 12 weeks of the offer to buy, you will need to arrange another valuation before the sale can complete. You may wish to negotiate with your surveyor when you first instruct them as to how much they will charge you for any further valuations. We will, however, try to nominate a person to purchase your share of your home within the eight weeks specified in your lease. 4

5 ! Not Sold? If Saxon Weald are unable to find a purchaser within the eight week period, you are free to advertise the property on the open market with a local estate agent, where they will charge a fee for selling this on your behalf. If outlined in your lease, we also charge a commission payable by you of 0.5% on the market value of your percentage share in the property. Once an estate agent has found a suitable purchaser, they must register with the relevant Help to Buy agent. Once Saxon Weald have received their reference number from the Help to Buy agent, we will invite them in for an interview to check they can afford the payments on shared ownership, carry out an identity and affordability check and check they meet the eligibility criteria for shared ownership purchase. 5

6 Residents guide to... Solicitors You will need to use a solicitor to handle the legal side of selling your home. Please make sure that they have experience of dealing with shared ownership, otherwise this can complicate matters. Both your solicitor and the buyer s solicitor will agree an exchange and completion date, negotiated by yourselves. We would encourage you to keep in regular contact with your solicitor to make sure things run as smoothly as possible. We will respond to outstanding queries and provide information about your property via our solicitor and yours. This is known as the Notice of Assignment and we normally charge your solicitor 115+ VAT for this service. 6 Moving Out When you have sold your home, make sure you have a firm arrangement with the buyer about where they can collect your keys you should only hand these over when your solicitor gets the money for your home. Usually you will be expected to hand these over to the buyer yourself. Alternatively, they can be collected from your solicitor (if local) or your estate agent (if you have one). As a last resort they can be left with the Sales department at Saxon Weald s head office to be collected from there.

7 ? Questions We hope that we have covered most of the information you need in order to sell your shared ownership home. Please let us know if you are intending to sell your property so we can discuss the process in more detail and answer any queries you may have. You can contact us on or 7

8 Facebook f Logo CMYK /.ai Facebook f Logo CMYK /.ai This information is available on audio tape or large print on request. We have other information leaflets available. For a full list contact us or visit our website. Information correct at February Head Office Saxon Weald House Worthing Road, Horsham West Sussex RH12 1DT Tel: Fax: info@saxonweald.com Registered Charity No Follow us: