You are responsible for how you finance your Right to Buy purchase. Your landlord cannot advise you on this or recommend a specific mortgage or lender. For free, unbiased information, the Money and Pensions Service is a good starting point — they have information and guidance about working out the costs of home ownership and understanding the types of mortgages available visit the Money and Pensions Service or call You could also speak to an official Right to Buy adviser for impartial and unbiased advice on finances — they will be able to support and guide you through your application.
You can also take a look at our Getting a mortgage page which should answer some of the more popular questions on mortgages. You can also consult an Independent Financial Adviser, mortgage broker or mortgage lender who will be able to provide information on mortgages. Some charge for their services. Check out carefully any person or company offering to help you buy your home as some of them may charge a fee.
They may be offering a deal which is far better for them than for you. Further information about costs and things to consider before you buy is available in our Right to Buy summary bookle t. Many lenders will take the discount as a deposit, although some will not.
If you take out a mortgage loan, you may have to pay for the cost of arranging it. When a sale is completed, you must pay the Land Registry to register you as the new owner.
You can get more information on this from Land Registry. You may have to pay Stamp Duty, which is a tax that people pay when they become homeowners. Stamp Duty is worked out as a percentage of the price you pay for a property.
More information on Stamp Duty. You are able to sell your home at any time, but if you sell your home within the first five years, the landlord has the right to ask for repayment of all or part of the discount. After five years, you can sell the property without repaying any of the discount you received. The amount you pay back also depends on the value of your home when you sell it. No, apart from the requirement to pay a proportion of the discount back to the local authority if you sell within the first five years.
However, if you sell within the first 10 years, you will have to offer it to either your former landlord or to another social landlord in your area at full market value. If your offer has not been accepted within 8 weeks, you will be free to sell the property on the open market. Being a homeowner may affect your benefits. So take time to work out all the costs involved. The time limits for the application process are set in law. See our Applying page for a guide on the process and timescales.
If you feel your landlord is delaying your application you can issue them with a delay notice, and in some instances you could get a further reduction in the sale price.
More information and delay notice forms can be found at GOV. Your landlord has to value your home at the price they think it would sell for on the open market on the date of your application. It is up to individual landlords to decide how to provide this valuation, but usually they will employ a valuer to come to your home and assess its market value. Information on how to ask for a new valuation will be on your offer notice from your landlord.
Your landlord is required to maintain the property in line with the terms of the tenancy agreement. The state of repair of your property will be reflected in the valuation. However, if you are concerned about the cost of potential repairs you might consider having a detailed survey done on the property before you buy.
You should employ a solicitor or a licensed conveyancer to look after the legal side of buying your home. Your landlord or a Citizens Advice Bureau can advise on local firms, and your local public library should have a list of the solicitors in your area and the type of work they do. Before employing anyone, always ask how much their advice will cost. You should have a survey of your home done.
Your lender may be able to arrange for its valuer to carry out the survey, which could save you paying for a separate valuation. If you buy the freehold of your home, you will be responsible for all the costs of maintaining your home, including routine repairs, major structural repairs, and improvements.
If you buy the leasehold usually the case with flats and maisonettes in larger blocks you will be responsible for internal improvements and routine repairs. External repairs and improvements and major structural repairs to the whole block will be the responsibility of the landlord.
You will have to pay service charges each year, and are likely to have to meet the costs of major repairs and refurbishment, which can be substantial. It is a very good idea to buy home contents insurance to protect your belongings against theft or accident. If you are buying the freehold, you will want to get buildings insurance, to protect against the cost of major repairs, for example in the event of a fire.
Many mortgage lenders will not lend to you if you do not have this. If you are buying a leasehold property, your landlord will almost certainly have buildings insurance on your property: check this with them. Leasehold is a way of owning property usually a flat for a fixed term but not the land on which it stands or the block of which it is a part.
When the lease expires, ownership of the property reverts back to the freeholder. Most Right to Buy leases start at years. Consider whether you can comfortably afford your mortgage repayments without struggling. This will usually be a condition of your mortgage. Alongside the general costs of homeownership, there are a few risks which are specific buying council homes:. Council houses, especially those in desirable areas, can be at risk of demolition to make way for new developments.
The council will buy your home from you with something called a compulsory purchase order CPO and force you to move out. Also, if you sell within the first five years of buying your home, you'll have to pay back some or all of the discount. Any housing benefit payments you currently receive will stop once you become a homeowner.
Although Right to Buy can be a great way to get on the property ladder, there are other options which you might want to consider. Shared Ownership is where you buy part of a property and rent the rest. You take out a mortgage on the bit you're buying, then pay a reduced rent on the bit you don't own. Read more about Shared Ownership. Help to Buy is a government scheme for first time buyers.
The government gives you an equity loan to put towards the cost of a new build home. Read more about Help to Buy. Which means someone else agrees to legally pay your mortgage if you're no longer able. Beinga guarantor is a serious commitment, because their home will be secured against a part of your mortgage.
If you pass the affordability checks, you might not need to put down a deposit at all. Read more about Guarantor mortgages. Buying a house with friends or a family member is becoming a popular way to get on the property ladder. Combining deposits and sharing all the monthly living expenses can be appealing. If one of you can't pay, you'll have to cover the cost. You also can't sell the property unless everyone on the mortgage agrees. Less processing, more understanding.
Our calculators give you an idea of what you might be able to borrow, what's affordable and a rough estimate of the kind of property prices you can start to look at. By continuing to use this website, you consent to our cookies and privacy policies.
In this guide: What is Right to Buy, anyway? What discount do I get with Right to Buy? This is not always the case though so you should always speak to mortgage providers or brokers to see what options you have available.
You are welcome to sell the property bought through right to buy at any point, but if you do so within five years then you will most likely have to pay back some or all of the discount you enjoyed at the start. In This Guide: How does right to buy work? Who qualifies for right to buy?
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