Selling your home

SELLING YOUR SHARES OF YOUR HOME?

If you are a Shared Owner you will be required to give LBH the opportunity to find a shared ownership purchaser for you. You may sell any time. This is known as an “assignment”. According to the terms of your lease you must normally allow LBH the opportunity to find a purchaser from our waiting list.

(We do, however, have a time limit to find a suitable nominee. This will be detailed in your lease and in most cases is a period of 8 weeks from the date of receipt of your written notice).

If we fail to find a purchaser for you within that period, you will be free to sell your share on the open market. The sale price is based on a valuation that is carried out by an independent valuer instructed by the LBH. This will be arranged by LBH but at your own expense. Should you wish to sell your home you must first contact the Home Ownership team who will send you a letter asking for your payment to cover the cost of the valuation. On receipt of your payment, we will instruct the valuer to carry out a valuation by prior appointment with you. The valuer will forward a report to us and we will then write to you to explain how much your share is worth. You cannot sell your property at a higher price than the valuation.

LBH has the right to nominate a purchaser. Should you wish to proceed with the sale, you must sign and return a declaration that you agree to pay our administration costs. These costs will be determined by the lease, and will either be 1.25% of the value of the share or our reasonable costs. Any suitable nominees will then be selected from our waiting list and a letter sent, asking them to contact you if interested.

Agreeing A Buyer

Should a nominee be interested, appointment times will be arranged with you. If you decide to proceed we will prioritise the applicants according to our Shared Ownership sales allocation policy.

LBH will also notify our own solicitors. Completion of the assignment will take a minimum of 12 weeks. Please remember that your purchaser has to go through all the stages you went through when you first purchased the property. When the purchaser has a mortgage offer and has signed the agreement to buy, you will be contacted by your solicitor to sign your part of the Agreement. At this point, LBH will have to sign a “Consent to Assign” which gives permission for you to sell your home to the purchaser. When the solicitors have all the agreements and a deposit from the purchaser you will exchange contracts (i.e. make the sale legally binding) and set a date for completion. The purchaser’s solicitor will then send the purchase price, less any deposit previously paid to your solicitor. Once this money is received the sale is complete and possession is passed from you to the purchaser. You will be required to vacate the property as soon as it completes, the latest time is 2pm; however this will be confirmed on your contract and also confirmed by your solicitors. Please note that if you are in arrears of rent and/or service charges, or other charges, completion must not take place unless the arrears are cleared as part of the completion of the sale.

WILL I NEED TO OBTAIN ANY INFORMATION FROM HAVERING COUNCIL?

If you are selling your shares on the open market the person buying your property may want details of the service charges, rent and ground rent as well as any works that have recently been carried out or are planned for the future if the property is an apartment.

Your solicitor should write to us asking for our resale pack. There is a fee for this service and your solicitor should contact the Home Ownership team for details. The fee must be paid by your solicitor before we can process their request. Information will be provided within 10 working days of receipt of the fee and consent form.

NB: Please ensure your solicitor requests any information required at the earliest possible opportunity. We cannot guarantee that requests made at short notice will be processed in less than corporate timescales.

Havering Council will not enter into any correspondence with anyone other than the Shared Owners or their legal representatives. We will not deal directly with any prospective purchaser or their solicitor.

DO I NEED TO NOTIFY HAVERING COUNCIL ONCE THE PROPERTY IS SOLD?

If the property is sold on the open market it is the new Shared Owners’ responsibility to notify the Home Ownership team of the transfer of ownership. This must be done within 21 days of completion. Our records cannot be amended to reflect the change of ownership until the official Notice of Assignment and appropriate fee(s) have been received by the Home Ownership team from your solicitors. Failure to do so is a breach of the lease agreement and could affect your building insurance cover. If the property has been sold to a nominated buyer then the Sales and Marketing team will advise LBH of the new owners and request the Notice of Assignment from the solicitors.

Letting your home

Under the terms and conditions of your lease you are NOT permitted to sublet all or part of the property. This means you are not permitted to let the property or a room to anyone.

DO I NEED HAVERING COUNCIL’S PERMISSION TO LET MY APARTMENT/HOUSE?

Once you have completed the final staircasing then you will need to request permission to sublet your house or apartment, there will be a fee for this. Please contact your Home Ownership Officer to request further information. As the Owner of the property you have an obligation under the terms and conditions of the lease or transfer document to notify the Council of any change in circumstances.

If the property is sublet your building insurance may be affected. Failure to notify us may result in loss of insurance cover if the property is an apartment/house. We will need a copy of the tenancy agreement. This will be required each time the agreement is renewed, there is a fee payable for this also.

You should notify the Home Ownership team in writing, providing details of your correspondence address, emergency contact telephone numbers and a copy of the current gas safety certificate as well as an electrical certificate.

Remember you are still the owner of the property and therefore responsible for the service charges. Your tenants must abide by the terms of the lease or transfer document. If they do not, we may take action against you as the owner of the property.

You should also contact your mortgage lender if you wish to sublet your property to check that the terms of your mortgage will allow this.

You can only let your property as a private residential apartment for the occupation of one family only.

The lease and transfer will state that the lessee should not… ‘Use the demised premises nor permit the same to be used for any purpose whatsoever other than as a private residential apartment/house in the occupation of one family’.

You are not allowed to use the demised premises as a HMO (Homes in Multiple Occupation) or for running a business. You may work from home if you are a hybrid worker but your lease also states that the property must not be used for any purpose from which a nuisance can arise to the lessors or to the lessees or occupiers of the other apartments nor for any illegal or immoral purpose. Legal action may be taken against you if this is found to be the case.

Car Parking

Please ensure that you are aware of the rights that you and your visitors have to use parking spaces on your estate. Some properties are sold with rights to a particular parking space and you should only use another space if you have the agreement of the relevant owner.

You should comply with any parking regulations/restrictions on the estate and abide by any by laws that apply. You or your visitors should not park in a manner that causes a nuisance or annoyance to anyone. Cars should always be taxed and in roadworthy condition.

Permission is not normally given for the parking of any commercial vehicles or caravans on the estate.

Certain locations will require a parking license and there are chargeable fees associated. For further information please speak to

Harassment and nuisance

Your lease states that you must not do anything within your apartment/house, building or estate that could cause a nuisance, annoyance or damage to other residents or Havering Council. This applies to everyone living in your property and any visitors.

Examples of nuisance are:

• Loud and frequent playing of music, radio or television

• Noisy parties

• Other loud noise such as vacuum cleaning, hammering or arguments during unsociable hours

• Harassment of neighbours

• Uncontrolled animals

• Blocking shared areas in the building or on the estate

• Excessive noise due to unsuitable floor covering e.g. laminate.

Any audio capable devices such as; TVs, radio, computer, mobiles etc. should only be played at a level that does not disturb your neighbours.

You must take all reasonable precautions to avoid noise nuisance of any kind, including the adequate sound insulation where wooden/laminated flooring has been fitted.

If you are found to be causing a nuisance or harassment, Havering Council can take legal action against you.

WHO DO I REPORT HARASSMENT OR NUISANCE TO?

If you are suffering harassment or nuisance, you must contact Havering Council at www.havering.gov.uk/askhousing to complete an online form, or telephone our contact centre on 01708 434000. Officers will investigate your complaint and take appropriate action where necessary.

Pets

DO I NEED PERMISSION TO KEEP A PET?

Yes, if you wish to keep a pet, you must first seek permission from Havering Council as stated in your lease. To obtain permission you must submit your request in writing to the Home Ownership Team. If permission is granted, your pet must be kept under control at all times.

Failure to do so may result in legal action being taken against you.

Resident engagement

In Havering your Housing Service is a partnership between residents and staff. We strongly encourage all our residents to get involved. This can mean helping shape services and/or using our community development services.

WHAT ARE THE AIMS OF RESIDENT ENGAGEMENT?

The Housing Resident Engagement Team aims to enable residents to actively participate in and influence the development of high quality housing services, build good community spirit and get life changing skills through:

• Scrutinising homes and housing performance

• Consulting on new ideas

• Structured meaningful consultation

• Encouraging volunteering in the community

• Arranging seasonal activities for residents in the borough

• Bespoke activities for sheltered schemes and hostel accommodation

Here Are Some Of The Ways You Can Get Involved

Service specific focus groups

These groups are formed when there is a specific service that needs to be reviewed or monitored. These include the Participation Panel, Community Representatives Panel, Sheltered Housing Group, and ad hoc sub-groups. Meetings are also held in regeneration areas for residents.

Events

Housing Services hold various events across the borough throughout the year. Check in our newsletter, At the Heart, to find out what is going on.

Community estate days

The Resident Engagement Team plan and put on fun days and other activities in areas across the borough. Why don’t you go along to an event and support them?

Youth activities

Housing Services is keen to put on activities for our younger residents especially during the school holidays. Previous projects have included football coaching, netball, music, drama and a healthy food project.

Befriender service

Age UK recruit volunteers to become befrienders and befriender pushers. The basic befriender will meet with residents and help tackle isolation by either running light errands, speaking to the resident and signposting extra services. Age UK will offer a support network and training.

Partnership working

We work closely with Age UK, Havering Volunteer Centre, Peabody, Regeneration Partners - among others - to organise additional activities for residents in the borough.

Employment and training programme

Havering Works is an innovative employment and skills service, provided by London Borough of Havering. It offers free support for local residents looking to get back to work or explore future career opportunities. Want some more information about how we can help you? Please get in touch with us via email at havering.works@havering.gov.uk or call the team on 01708 434456.

Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs)

Tenant Management Organisations are a group of residents that live in a specific area and wish to manage services provided by Housing Services. Establishing a TMO is completed with full consultation and support from residents in the area, working with officers, external support agencies and training.

For more information of any of the above please contact the Resident Engagement Team on 01708 434000 or email getinvolved@havering.gov.uk