If you're a shared owner, most of our leases allow you to buy additional shares in your home - this is known as staircasing. In most cases, you can staircase to 100%, so you can own your house or flat outright. However, homes built in rural areas often have a cap on the amount you can buy - usually 80%. This is to ensure the property is sold to someone with a local connection. To be eligible to staircase, you must be up-to-date with your rent and service charge payments.
If you want to staircase, you need to contact us to arrange an independent valuation, so we can tell you how much increasing your share will cost. You must pay for this valuation in advance and it usually costs in the region of £395 (£329.17 + VAT).
We will not accept an estate agent's valuation or a valuation carried out by a bank/building society as these are not classified as independent. Once we have this information, we can send you details of the costs involved and you can decide if you wish to go ahead and start putting legal and financial arrangements in place. We recommend that you try to increase your share in substantial amounts, as each time you staircase it will cost you a significant sum in legal, mortgage and arrangement fees.
For more information or to start the staircasing process, please email sales@wealdliving.com or call us on 01403 226060.
