Selling your shared ownership home
Selling your shared ownership home is sometimes called a resale. Here, we describe the steps you need to take to sell if you own less than 100% of your home.
Overview
Your lease states that we have a nomination period to try and find a buyer for your home, which is between four to eight weeks and aims to help other first-time buyers get on to the housing ladder via shared ownership.
After the initial two weeks, if a buyer has not been found we will also be marketing at 100% outright for the remainder of the nomination period. This also helps to ensure you're given an efficient and cost-effective service.
Some residents and buyers in our apartment blocks may experience issues securing mortgages because of changes in building safety advice.
Please seek advice directly from your lender or mortgage broker before applying so you do not incur unnecessary valuation or solicitors' costs.
Steps to selling your shared ownership home
Instruct a RICS/FRICS registered surveyor to complete a valuation report
The first step is to instruct a surveyor to value your home and this needs to be an independent valuer, qualified through the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), as stated in your lease.
We have a panel of independent surveyors (PDF), qualified by RICS, to choose from. They have a wealth of experience valuing homes and offer preferred rates to L&Q residents.
You also have the option to instruct a RICS registered surveyor of your choice. However, they must meet certain criteria, details of which can be found in our leaflet about instructing your own surveyor (PDF).
Once you have decided who you want to use to value your home, you must contact your chosen surveyor directly by quoting the reference ‘LQ-Resales'.
During your call with the surveyor, they will arrange a suitable time to visit your home and collect payment of their fees.
The report will be provided to you and set out the price at which you can sell your share. This price will consider the remaining lease length and include any home improvements you have made.
Photos, floorplans and the Energy Performance Certificate
Once you have your valuation report, we'll instruct an independent marketing company to provide professional photographs of your property, a floorplan and an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)*.
*An EPC must be provided to prospective buyers to comply with European Legislation.
Please note that your buyer may also want additional safety certification.
We can also provide 3D imagery which allows prospective purchasers to walk through your home virtually – and we'll cover the cost of this service as part of the resale administration fee.
We need your permission to pass on your details to our marketing partner, to comply with data protection regulations. So, we'll need you to sign a Notice of Intention to Sell form (PDF) and return it to us with the valuation report.
Confirmation of sale
Once you have the valuation report and are happy to proceed, you will need to provide us with:
- a copy of the valuation report
- a signed Notice of Intention to Sell form (PDF)
- a copy of your lease if you have it
You can email these documents to our Resales team.
Once we've received everything, we'll send you a 'confirmation of sale' document outlining all the sales particulars. This will be used to market your property online. You'll need to carefully review the sales particulars and confirm you are happy to sell.
We strongly suggest not making an offer on another property until we place your home on the market.
We will list your property online, once we receive signed confirmation of sale documents.
Marketing and viewings
During the nomination period when we are marketing your home, you will not be permitted to sell your home, either privately or through an estate agent.
Once your property is listed online, we'll provide your contact details to anyone registered for shared ownership and anyone wishing to purchase 100%.
They will contact you to arrange a viewing at a mutually convenient time.
If, for any reason, you cannot honour the viewing dates once they have been arranged, it will be your responsibility to contact the viewers directly to rearrange, or cancel, with them.
Reservations and instructing solicitors
After a successful viewing of your home, a potential buyer will need to submit a reservation form to us. Once we receive this, we will allocate the property per our selection and allocation policy.
The successful applicant will be required to pay us a reservation fee of £500 (which is refundable on completion).
They must also attend a financial interview, which we’ll arrange, to check their affordability. After a successful interview, solicitors will need to be instructed by all parties.
Once a buyer is in place, we will instruct solicitors to act for us, and you will need to appoint your own solicitor.
We have a panel of independent conveyancing solicitors (PDF) that you may wish to use, who have experience in shared ownership.
Management enquiries
Once instructed, your solicitor will be expected to provide your buyer's solicitor with responses to management enquiries. This is known as a pre-sale enquiry pack.
The pre-sale enquiry pack can be provided electronically and there is a fee for providing the information. View our full list of administration fees (PDF).
Your solicitors will be contacted about this pack after they receive instruction from us and as a leaseholder, you are responsible for this cost.
If you also have an independent managing agent, your solicitor must contact them about any additional costs they may charge.
Details of any applicable managing agent will be provided to your solicitor at the appropriate time.
Please note that compiling the pre-sale enquiry pack can take up to 15 working days so your solicitor needs to request this in good time.
Financial advice
As part of the sale process, we recommend speaking directly to one of our independent financial consultants (PDF), as we think you will benefit from their advice and experience.
If we find a buyer for your home, we'll charge a percentage admin fee based on the full market value of your property, plus VAT.
The percentage admin fee payable is outlined in your lease but is generally between 1% and 1.25% of the full open market valuation.
We will confirm the percentage amount in the confirmation of sale particulars.
When there’s no buyer at the end of the nomination period
We will waive our nomination rights if there’s no buyer after our nomination period ends and send you a letter advising you of your options. This will include information about selling your home on the open market via an estate agent.
This will involve you selling the property at 100%, your buyer will purchase the additional unowned share (known as ‘Back to Back Staircasing’).
On completion, you will receive the money for your share of the property and L&Q will receive ours.
Please note, as the buyer for your property will not have been introduced by L&Q, you will be responsible for covering our solicitor costs as we'll be waiving our resale admin fee. You will also pay for your estate agent fees and solicitor's costs.
You would not be able to accept a lower offer than the RICS valuation unless you're prepared to take the full shortfall (not just the % share you own).
You will be able to accept a higher offer. Where this is achieved, you will keep 100% of the additional monies received, L&Q will only require our share based on the RICS valuation.
If you require further information on selling your home
You can email our Resales team.
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