I want to buy my council house – what should I do?

At a certain point in life, a lot of people in the UK decide that they want to make sensible investments in property and get on the housing ladder. At the end of 2016, the House of Commons recorded that around 65% of UK households were owner-occupiers, 17% were renting from a private landlord and 18% were renting from a social landlord. Notably, the rate of ownership-occupation is lower than it was ten years ago and has continued to fall over the following years. With home ownership being a sensible way to invest and protect your assets, it is always something worth considering.
What is right-to-buy?
If you live in an eligible council house or in a housing association, then right to buy solicitors may be able to help you with purchasing your property. ‘Right to Buy’ is a government scheme that allows eligible council and housing association tenants to buy the home they have been living in at a significant discount.
Under the scheme, when buying your home, you may be entitled to receive a discount of up to 70 percent of the property value, as long as it does not exceed a total sum of £108,000 in the London area or £80,900 outside of the London area.
You can make the application alone, or you can make a joint application to buy a property under the Right to Buy scheme, but you must have been a tenant for a minimum period of 3 years.
You would be unable to purchase property under the Right to Buy scheme if:
- The property you’re wishing to buy is not your main home
- You have been declared bankrupt or you have outstanding debts
- You have been evicted from the property
- The property is not self-contained
What sort of discount am I entitled to?
Conveyancing solicitors will be able to help you with working out the amount of right to buy discount you are entitled to. There will be two main factors that are kept in mind. These are:
Firstly, the longer you have been a tenant in the property, the higher the discount will be.
Secondly, the discount that is applied will depend on if you are buying a flat or a house.
If you have been in a house for 3 to 5 years, your discount will be 35%, and if you have been in a flat for 3 to 5 years, your discount will be 50%. For each further year as a tenant you will get a 1% increase on your discount if you are in a house and a 2% increase if you are in a flat.
Right to buy discounts increase yearly in the month of April, in line with movement in the Consumer Price Index, otherwise known as the CPI. It is best to check with the council/housing association as the rules can change from time to time.
Whether you are wishing to purchase a new house that you have never lived in before, or you want to enter into a buy-to-let scheme, expert solicitors will be able to help you with reasonable conveyancing fees. It is always best to seek professional advice in these situations.