For the Housing Corporation's booklet on Right To Acquire, click on the link below:

RIGHT TO ACQUIRE

Waterloo Assured tenants living in homes built since 1997 may have the right to acquire their homes with a discount. This page explains how to apply for the right to acquire but also what to consider in making the decision to buy your own home.

Who has the Right to Acquire?

To have the right to acquire your home from Waterloo if:

• You have an assured tenancy
• You have had a housing association or council tenancy for more than 2 years if you were a tenant before 18th January 2005. If you became a Waterloo tenant after 18th January 2005 you must have had a housing association or council tenancy for 5 years.
• This is your only home
• Your was built by Waterloo after 1st April 1997.

rta2006.pdf (174Kb)

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Housing Corporation
(Right To Acquire section)

Law Centres

Citizens Advice Bureau

You can apply for the right to acquire jointly with joint tenants or members of your family who have lived with you for the past 12 months.

Who doesn't have the Right to Acquire?

You do not have the right to acquire if:

• You live in a sheltered scheme or where your home is specifically for the use of elderly or disabled people
• You have a court order saying you must leave your home
• You are bankrupt or have been declared insolvent
• Waterloo does not own the free hold of your home
• You occupy your home because you are employed by Waterloo
• Waterloo has a court order suspending your right to acquire because of anti social behaviour
• Your home is valued lower than Waterloo’s loan for the property

How Much Will It Cost?

The price you pay for buying your home will be the current open market value less the discount you are entitled to.

To work out the value we will ask an independent valuer to work out the open market value of your home. (You can get an idea of what this will be from similar properties for sale in your area). If you are not happy with this valuation you do have the right to appeal to the district valuer - this will be the final valuation and could be more than the original value.

The discount is currently fixed at £11,000 if you live in Birmingham or Worcester; £10,000 for Bromsgrove and Lichfield; £9,000 for Dudley, Sandwell, Wyre Forest, North Warwickshire, Cannock, Stafford, East Staffordshire and Tamworth; and £13,500 for Solihull.

Other costs of buying your own home

Buying your home is a major financial commitment. In addition to the purchase price of the property you will need to pay certain initial costs. These may include:

• Mortgage arrangements. Fee and valuation if you are going to get a mortgage.
• Legal Fees. The cost of a solicitors to deal with the purchase for you.
• Survey Fees. You should ask a qualified surveyor to carry out an independent survey
• Land Registry. Registration fees
• Stamp Duty. If the value of your property is over £125,000 you have to pay from 1% in stamp duty
• Deposit

Ongoing costs of ownership

Mortgage payments
Unless you buy the property with cash, the cost of a mortgage can vary substantially depending on what offer you get. It is important for you to know and realise that the amount you have to re-pay may vary with interest rate changes.

Changes in interest rate(repayment mortgage)
The following table gives you an idea of how much repayments would vary based on borrowing £100,000 over 25 years

Council tax
You will be responsible for paying your council tax.

Buildings Insurance
You should make sure that your home is insured for its full value against any type of damage. If you buy a flat, Waterloo will insure the building but costs will be passed on to you in service charges.

Contents Insurance
You should make sure that the contents of your home are covered against any type of damage.

Life Insurance
You may prefer to take out a life insurance policy in case the main earner in the family dies before the mortgage is fully repaid.

Mortgage payment protection insurance
This type of insurance can cover mortgage repayments for up to a specified period in the event of redundancy, sickness or accidents.

Utility Bills
You will have to pay your gas, electricity, water, etc.

Maintenance/ Repair costs
You will be responsible for organising and paying for all repairs and improvements to your home once you have bought it. This will include regular servicing of your central heating. If you buy a flat you will have to pay your share of costs or repairs to the outside of the building and to communal areas.

Service Charges
Charges for providing services or maintaining communal areas by Waterloo

The procedure for claiming Right to Acquire

• We will supply you with an application form on request
• You must complete the form and return it to us
• We will tell you if you qualify for the right to acquire or not, stating the reasons if not, within four weeks of receipt of your application (eight weeks if the qualifying period includes time with another landlord.)
• If you qualify for the right to acquire we will ask a valuer to visit your home to carry out an open market valuation.
• Within eight weeks if you are buying a house or 12 weeks if you are buying a flat, we will send you an offer notice stating the sale terms. This will include any service charge payable.
• If you decide to proceed on the terms of the offer notice, you must advise us no later than 12 weeks from the date of the offer notice that you wish to proceed.

Waterloo does not charge for any of these services

Procedures in cases of delays

In certain circumstances, we have the right to serve a notice on you to complete the application. If you fail to respond we will then serve a second notice to complete. If you still fail to complete, then this would result in your application being withdrawn.

For your part you have the right to serve a notice on us if you consider that we have failed to comply with the notice procedures. If we fail to comply with such a notice, you would have the right to serve a further notice and if we fail to comply with that notice you would have the right to treat rent payments under your tenancy agreement as part payment of the price payable if you complete the purchase.

The risk of repossession

It is important that you keep your mortgage payments up to date. If you fail to do so, there is a risk that the lender will exercise their legal right to take over possession of your home.

Repaying discounts

If you want to sell your home within 5 years of buying it you will have to repay the discount you got when you bought your home from Waterloo.

The amount of discount you have to repay is the same proportion of the sale price as the discount was of the purchase price. So if the discount represented 10% of the property's value when you bought it, you have to repay an amount which is 10% of the property's current value when you sell it. The rate at which you repay the discount changes from 100% in the first year after you purchased, to 20% in the fifth year.

If you sell you home within the first ten years of buying it under the right to acquire you will have to offer it to Waterloo to buy back from you at the current market value before you can sell it on the open market.

Points to note

The information in this document is only a guidance and it is not a substitute for any professional or legal advice.

Further Information

"Your Right to Acquire your Home" a booklet published by the Housing Corporation is available to download here:

Your Right To Acquire (rta2006.pdf, 174Kb)

You can get free independent advice from your local Citizens Advice Bureau or Lawcentre