Selling a shared ownership home for over 55s

When it comes to selling your Shared Ownership home, you will firstly need to:

• Obtain a RICS valuation – Arrange for a valuation of your property by a surveyor registered with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). This valuation determines the market value of your share and is required for setting the sale price. You are responsible for paying for this valuation, if you are not sure who to contact, we have a list of independent RICS surveyors that can contact.
• Check for an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) – Ensure your property has a valid EPC, as it is legally required for selling a home, you can check if an EPC is available on the Gov.uk website. If you don’t have one, you will need to arrange for an assessment.
• Notify Guinness Homes’ resales team – The resales team will need to be notified about your intention to sell, this can be done online by completing your ‘application to sell form’ on Guinness Homes’ website. Alternatively, you can call us for support.

Most commonly, existing Shared Owners own less than 100% of the property; in this situation, Guinness Homes would be required to market your home as part of a ‘nomination period’ (this is typically between 4–8 weeks), to find a buyer for your ownership share. Your lease will state the nomination period that applies for the home you are looking to sell.

If we cannot find a buyer within this nomination period, you can appoint an estate agent of your choice to sell your share on the open market. However, Guinness will still need to check that your future buyer via agent meets the eligibility criteria for Shared Ownership.

Whilst the home is being marketed, our resales team at Guinness sell in accordance with our sales and allocation policy, which is based on a ‘first come, first served’ approach.

This means that we will let everyone on our database know that the home is on the market. We will refer customers who meet the Shared Ownership eligibility criteria to the nominated broker in the order in which applications are received.

The first customer that obtains their full broker sign-off will be given the opportunity to reserve the home. This means that you cannot come to us with a pre-selected buyer. It is important to note that if you haven’t ‘staircased’ to 100% ownership, any prospective buyer will need to purchase at least the same share you currently own.

Note: Applicants must have agreed a sale and provide a memorandum of sale for their current home before proceeding.

You and your buyer will need to appoint your own solicitors.

A solicitor or conveyancer will handle the legal aspects of the sale, including contracts and leasehold inquiries.

Please note: Legal fees and any Guinness administrative fees may be incurred with the processing of your property sale. Take a look at our blog post for a rough breakdown of the costs expected when it comes to selling your Shared Ownership home.

We cannot advise on the length of time it will take to find a buyer for your home. Once a buyer has been found and a memorandum of sale has been issued, we would anticipate the sale to take between 4–6 months.

This is a guideline only and it may be slower or quicker than this.

Guinness will not be held responsible for the length of time it takes to sell your property; however, we will work to respond to all requests for information within 7 days.

Once the home is sold, it is important that you cancel any Direct Debits that you have with Guinness. Please note: we cannot update our housing management records, until the solicitors have legally notified us that the sell has taken place, and therefore it can take a couple of weeks after completion for our system to be updated.

On moving day, take final meter readings, ensure the property is secure, and leave it in a clean condition for the new owners. Finally, don’t forget to redirect your mail and update your address with important contacts