Your lease will explain the ownership of your home, it is like to be one of the following categories:
You Own 100% of Your Home
In this instance, you normally do not need to tell us that you are selling your home, and you can appoint an estate agent to market your home for you. In some instances, where homes have been built in a rural area, you may have a Shared Ownership Mandatory Buy Back Lease, which means when you come to sell your home, Guinness have to purchase the property to enable us to reoffer if on the original shared ownership terms.
Shared Ownership – Fixed Equity Leases
This is where the lease you hold does not allow you to buy any more shares that you currently own. This is common in rural areas and/or where we are providing over for over 55’s, The share you own is usually fixed at either 70, 75 and 80%, it is likely that you do not pay rent on the share you do not own (although you should check your list). However, you will pay service charges to us. If this is the case, you should follow the steps listed below.
Standard Shared Ownership Lease
You own between a 25% and 90% and pay a rent on the shares you do not own that are retained by Guinness, it is also likely that you pay a service charge. In this instance, you should follow the guide below.
- When you are looking to sell the current shares you own in your home, the lease will explain how you do this. It is standard within our leases – that the landlord (Guinness), we will have an exclusive period of time to market your home, to other first-time buyers who need to purchase with the assistance of shared ownership – we call this the “Nominations Period” you should refer to your lease for time span of your specific nominations period – it is usually 4 to 8 weeks”
- During the nominations period, the price that your home can be sold for must be at a current RICS valuation.
- Before we can consider your application to sell, you need to contact a RICS surveyor to visit your home and provide us with a RICS valuation (report on its value) – you will need to pay the cost of the RICS survey.
- When you’ve received the RICS report, you complete the application form below, agreeing to pay the costs associated with selling your home (the costs you pay will be stated within your lease).
- We will then instruct a company to arrange a visit to your home for professional photography to show your home at its best.
- When we’ve received the photographs, we’ll arrange for the property to be listed on websites such as Rightmove, Zoopla and the Guinness Homes website.
- Any interested buyers will contact you directly to arrange a viewing of your home – completing the application form gives an agreement that your contact email will be shared with prospective buyers when they enquire.
- Should a buyer decide to purchase your home, they will need to complete an application form to ensure they are eligible for Shared Ownership. Once a potential buyer has completed their application form we will pass their details onto one of our panel Mortgage Brokers who will complete their eligibility assessment.
- We will allocate your home on a “First Come, First Served” basis, this means that the first interested party to complete “the FULL broker sign off” will be given the opportunity to reserve the home.
- If at the end of the nominations period, we have been unsuccessful in identifying a buyer to purchase the shares you own in your home, you can then choose if you would like us to continue marketing the home for you, or if you would prefer us to stop marketing the home, to enable you to appoint your own Estate Agent. Once the nominations period has elapsed and if you choose to market the home via an Estate Agent, you can decide on the value to market the home at on the open market – this could be below, at or above the RICS valuation. However, you should be aware, if you identify a buyer that is purchasing more shares than you currently own (known as back to back staricasing transaction) we will require a RICS valuation to be in place for the additional shares you are buying to sell onto your buyer.
- • Note: It is important to check the number of unexpired years on your lease, as this can impact your buyer’s ability to get a mortgage, especially if the term remaining is around 80 years. View more information on leases.
- Mortgage lenders are now requesting a completed EWS1 form for flats in most buildings. This is not something we can provide at present.
- The National Housing Federation has provided further information on this issue on their website.
Follow these steps for a smooth shared ownership sale:
Understand the process
When you sell your Shared Ownership home, you give us the chance to nominate a buyer. We hold a database of people who have applied to us, and we will do our best to find a buyer quickly.
If we can’t, you’re free to sell your home on the open market depending on what your lease says– usually, two months after we have received your request to sell. When you initially look to sell your home, during the nomination period it must be valued by a RICS surveyor.
The price of your share will be a percentage of the full market value. A valuer that meets our requirements must complete your valuation.
Research the value of your home
Get an idea of your house value by visiting a valuation site like Zoopla. With Zoopla, you can get a sign of the value of your home.
Follow the link below to discover what your home may be worth on the Zoopla website.
Arrange a RICS survey
When you’ve decided you want to sell your home, the first step is to arrange a formal RICS survey. This is a requirement of your lease.
We have a panel of surveyors who understand our requirements for your valuation report. Alternatively, you can choose your own surveyor near you by searching the RICS website.
There is a fee for a valuation report which you will need to pay directly to the company you choose.
Understand the costs
We utilise a company called 99 Home Ltd to arrange for photography of your home and to advertise your home on Rightmove and Zoopla. Guinness will pay the cost of this directly to 99 Home Ltd.
What you’ll need to pay for:
- A valuation survey report that was written by a Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors member – see step 3
- Energy Performance Certificate – approx. £90
- Our solicitor’s fees – View our charges
- The resale fee mentioned in your lease. This is normally 1.5% of the full market value, however this does vary from lease to lease and you should refer to your own lease for confirmation of what you will need to pay. If there is no mention of a fee in your lease, please check our charges page.
- Your solicitor’s fees
Prepare to sell your home
Just check you have the following items saved on your computer or device ready to upload as part of the application form.
- Copy of your EPC (Energy Performance Certificate)
- Copy of your RICS survey report
- Copy of your passport or driving licence (for both if appropriate)
- Copy of a proof of address (such as a utility bill, council tax bill)
- Complete an application to sell Ready to sell?
FAQ
Below you will find other information about selling your Guinness home.
We’ll get everything ready like checking your lease and asking our photography company 99 Home Ltd to call you. They’ll arrange an appointment with you to take photographs and draw a floorplan of your home.
Viewings are arranged directly between you and any interested buyers who complete an enquiry form on your property listing.
When a buyer submits an enquiry form on your property listing, this will come to you by email so that you can arrange a viewing with them directly.
Ask your buyer to submit an application form following their viewing. We’ll ask a mortgage broker to check they can afford the monthly repayments. When they’ve been approved we’ll write to you by email. You should be aware that cash buyers will also need to speak to the broker to have their affordability signed off.
We will send a memorandum of sales to all solicitors (sellers, buyers and ours), therefore you need to ensure you have formally appointed your solicitors to act on your behalf.
Once instructed:
- The sellers’ solicitor will draft the contract pack once drafted this will be sent to the buyers’ solicitor to review.
- The buyers’ solicitors will request the relevant searches, and review the contract pack once received, and once they have had the opportunity to review the contract pack, they will raise any queries with the sellers’ solicitor.
- If you are selling an apartment the sellers’ solicitors, will request a management pack from us, we will we supply this within 15 working days of the request and we do not change for the Management Pack to be provided.
- The buyers’ solicitors, will review the enquiries and where relevant, will send these over to our solicitors for comment.
- Please note depending on the enquiries which are raised, our solicitors may need to review these over to us to review with the relevant teams, if the queries are technical, it may take us a bit of time to respond to the queries but we will keep you informed of progress.
- Once all enquiries have been responded, the contract pack will be issued to the buyers to sign and return, and we also need to sign arrange to sign legal documents our end – for this reason, we ask for 10 days’ notice of the completion date which has been agreed between seller and buyer.
- Please be aware we cannot provide timescales for how long it will take you to sell your home, as this will vary depending on whether you are in a chain, and whether your buyer is an chain and the length of the chain and also the type of enquiries which are raised, however we would estimate that the sales is likely to take between 3 and 6 months of the MOS being issued.
We utilise a company called 99 Home Ltd to arrange for photography of your home and to advertise your home on Rightmove and Zoopla. Guinness will pay the cost of this directly to 99 Home Ltd.
What you’ll need to pay for
- A valuation survey report written a Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors member
- Energy Performance Certificate – approx. £45
- Our solicitors fees – £365.00 plus VAT
- The resale fee mentioned in your lease. (If there is no mention of a fee in your lease we will charge £1,200 if your home sells within the nomination period or £540 if your home sells after the nomination period.)
- Your solicitors fees
Every property sell is individual, and average time scales should not be relied up.
From the point you have a buyer and the Memorandum of Sale being issues – the sale is likely to take between 3 and 6 months.
You should be aware if you or your buyer are in chains the length of time to scale could be longer.
You should not make arrangements to move (if you are still living in your current property) until you are advised to do by your licenced conveyancer.
Most Shared Ownership leases give us a period in which to find a buyer for the property. Our standard nomination period is between 4 and 8 weeks.
Depending on what your lease says, this is the length of time you are required to allow us to offer your home to our waiting list of buyer, during which time you are required to sell at the current RICS valuation.
The nomination period starts from when we receive a fully completed instruction to sell your home.
If your lease doesn’t require you to do this, you can usually sell your home on the open market straight away.
The purpose of the nominations period, is to see if we can find someone to buy your home, similar to the position that you were in when you purchased the home
We used public money to help fund your home, and we need to ensure this is protected to help others in the future. One of the conditions attached to this funding was that the home would be offered in the future to another eligible person.
Just as you benefited, we continue to have a duty to help others find a home.
We have a database of people waiting for Shared Ownership homes, and if you decide to sell your Shared Ownership home, it is a condition of your lease that you give us the opportunity to find a buyer.
If we can’t find a buyer, we can give you permission to sell on the open market through an estate agent. We will provide you with advice if this happens. We want to be reasonable, if we can’t find a buyer, we’ll let you know as soon as we can. You can then choose to sell your share through an estate agent, or you may be able to sell 100% of your property. It depends on your lease restrictions.
We will respond to your application to sell with 5 working days, this will be to confirm we have passed the information to 99 homes, or if required request further information from yourself.
We cannot advise on how long it will take you to find a buyer, however, if we do not find a buyer with in the nominations period, then you will can choose to market the property with an alternative estate agent.
Whilst, Guinness are selling your home you are required to have a valid RICS in place and you will need to ensure this is valid at the point of completion.
When you are outside of the nominations period, if you choose to market though an estate agent, you are no longer required to have a RICS valuation in place, however you should be aware that if you staircase and purchase further shares to enable the home to be sold at 100% (where permitted under the terms of the lease) you will need to ensure there is a valid RICS in place at the point of completion.
Please be aware that if you are outside of the nominations period, we can only continue to market your property at the RICS valuations.
You can do this, as soon as your nominations period has ended, and when you submit your application to sell, we will be able advise you of this date.
When you are outside of the nominations period, you can select the Estate Agent you would like to use and you can agree the prices the property is sold for as you are no longer required to have a RICS (unless Staircasing)
The Estate Agent will be able to market the share you currently own and potentially the 100% value (it the lease allows you to staircase).
If the Estate Agent, finds a buyer to buy your shares, then we will need the potential buyer to complete our standard application process as we need to confirm that they are eligible for shared ownership.
It is important to note that, if we are unable to nominate a buyer and you do attempt to sell on the open market, this is subject to a 12-month limit. So if you fail to sell during that time, we may require the nomination opportunity again after 12 months.
When selecting an Estate Agent to sell your home on the open market, it is important to ensure they are aware of the Shared Ownership Product, there are specialist Estate Agents that deal with Shared Ownership.
Yes, we can. If you wish, we can continue to offer your home to our waiting list of Shared Ownership buyers while you also try and sell on the open market. If we’re able to find a buyer in that time, the same fee will be payable as if we had done so during the nomination period.
We require 10 full working days in-between exchange of contracts and completion of the sale to process all memorandums and issue notices.
On some homes, you can never own 100% so you won’t have the option of Staircasing to 100% and selling on the open market. This only applies to a small number of homes. Your solicitor should have told you about this at the time you bought your home.
When you have sold your home, make sure you have a firm arrangement with the buyer about where they can collect your keys – you should only hand these over when your solicitors get the money for your home. It’s a good idea to leave the keys with your solicitor or a trusted friend or relative. We cannot look after or pass on your keys for you.
Yes, as soon as you’ve got a buyer for your home you can make an application to purchase a new home.
You should have been provided with a copy from your solicitor when you purchased your property. Alternatively, you can get a copy from your mortgage lender or from the UK Land Registry website.
Your lease will state what shares were initially purchased when it was granted. If you have bought any additional shares since then, your solicitor should have registered these with the Land Registry. So you can check there or speak to your solicitor.
This is to cover our overheads incurred in managing the whole resale process, operating and maintaining a computerised database, approval of mortgage offers and checking eligibility. Overall, this fee makes sure that we can continue helping other people onto the property ladder.
If you’re not happy with the valuation you receive, you will need to discuss it with your Valuer. We will only accept the Valuer’s decision, however.
In most cases, we will just refuse to approve the buyer. This will result in your sale falling through and everyone losing any fees they have already paid. You are responsible for understanding the terms of your lease, so it is vital that you follow this.
In rare circumstances, we may permit the sale to proceed. However, due to the fact you have breached your lease, you will be required to pay a charge of £3,000 or 1.5%, whichever is the higher, of the sale price for 100% of the equity.