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How Do I Go About Buying My Council Home?

Council housing and social housing in all their manifestations and permutations have been the backbone of British life for many years now. Since the middle of the 1980s there has been a concerted move on the part of the various councils to sell their council houses off to their occupants as a part of the crusade for private ownership that blossomed under Mrs. Thatcher and has been encouraged by subsequent administrations.

If you are a council tenant it is very possible that you are eligible to buy your council property at a significant discount. You can then either live in your new property or sell it – probably at a significant profit if you happen to live in an up-market area.

The first step in this process is to find out whether you qualify, as not all council tenants do, even if the council runs a scheme for tenants to buy up their housing stock. To qualify, the property has to be your only home, be self-contained and you have to have occupied it as a secure tenant for not less than two years. Local housing solicitors are available to offer advice on such matters if they are unclear.

You will have to take a few other factors into account before you leap at the opportunity of buying up your council flat or house. For instance, if your house is currently being paid through housing benefits, if you suddenly become owner-occupier of the property rather than merely a tenant then this would no longer apply. It may be possible to switch to income support to pay the bills, but as this typically takes the better part of a year to come through you will need to save and budget accordingly in order to make ends meet. Also, if you have a council flat and you become the owner of it you will have to pay a service charge on the leasehold, and the amount of this can vary considerably between councils and buildings. Those living in council houses will buy the freehold at the same time as they buy the property and needn’t worry about this.
Some people are not eligible to buy their council homes at all. These include cases of un-discharged bankruptcy, people with bankruptcy petitions pending and those with possession orders on the home.

Council properties are sold to tenants at a discount to make them more attractive, although the amount varies between councils. The general rule is that the longer you have been a tenant in the property, the less you will be asked to pay for it. The discount varies between areas because it is worked out based on the value of the property in the housing market, and this obviously varies widely. A discount of anything up to 50% off the normal purchase price of the house is common for those tenants who have lived there for more than two decades.

A firm of solicitors such as Duncan Lewis will be happy to advise should you have any questions.