Right to buy

Right of First Refusal (ROFR)

Section 156 A of the Housing Act 1985 (as amended by the Housing Act 2004). This is our right to buy back your property.

As your home was originally purchased through the Governments Right to Buy Scheme, you agreed to the covenant (contract) that states you must first offer the property back to us, should you decide to sell your home within the first 10 years of the original purchase date (the date it was bought from us).

You will not be able to register a new owner with the Land Registry until we have made a decision to re-purchase or not.

If you decide to sell within the first 5 years from the original purchase date, you will also be liable to pay back to us all or a percentage of the discount awarded to you for the initial sale.

If you sell within -

  • year 1 – re-payment of the full total discount
  • year 2 – re-payment of 80% of the total discount
  • year 3 – re-payment of 60% of the total discount
  • year 4 – re-payment of 40% of the total discount
  • year 5 – re-payment of 20% of the total discount

The covenant has been put in place to give the Council the opportunity to buy back a property which may be of strategic importance, for reasons, (but not limited to) -

  • Housing need and demand
  • Capital funds available

I want to sell my property within 10 years of purchase

Contact the Right to Buy Team by - 

Right of First Refusal process and timeline

On the date we receive your completed application, we have a set timeline in which to process the form -

  • 5 working days from receipt to acknowledge your application
  • 8 weeks from the acknowledgement date to decline, accept or offer to a nominated Registered Social Landlord, (please note, the clock stops at this point if the District Valuer is required in the event of a dispute over the offer price*).
  • After the expiry of the 8 weeks if there has been no offer, you are permitted to sell on the open market and the ROFR covenant is waivered for a period of 12 months. If you do not then sell the property within the 12 months of that date, the covenant is re-instated, and you will need to reapply as above until the full 10yrs expires.

The Right to Buy Team will process your application within 5 working days of receipt and inform you of when the 8 weeks for a decision will start and the date when we will need to respond to you by.

If we want to purchase your property

The Right to Buy Team will arrange a convenient appointment with you to visit your home and conduct an initial inspection of the property. This is to establish such things as if any major alterations have been done and to confirm that there will be no one left occupying when it is sold (we do not consider any ‘sitting tenants’ as part of a re-purchase). This may then lead to arranging a council surveyor and valuer to visit so we can then assess the viability of re-purchasing the property and to get a market value in comparison to the one you have supplied in your application.

If you or the Council cannot agree on a price, the decision will be sent to the District Valuer for an outcome, and this will prove as the final offer.

When the decision to accept the offer is made we will send you an Acceptance Notice either accepting the offer ourselves or by nominating a Registered Social Landlord to accept the offer. The Acceptance Notice does not give any legal requirement for us or the Registered Social Landlord to purchase the property until a binding contract is entered into.

When we accept the offer our Legal Property Service will be instructed to progress the purchase of the property, you will need to instruct a solicitor to complete the sale on your behalf. If a Registered Social Landlord has expressed an interest in accepting your offer they will communicate with you directly regarding the sale.

If we don't want to purchase your property

If the decision is to reject your offer we will send you a Rejection Notice which must be served within 8 weeks of receipt of your offer. After receipt of a Rejection Notice as the owner you may dispose of (sell) the property in accordance with the regulations. If the property is not disposed of within 12 months of the date of the rejection notice the owner is required to offer the property back to us in accordance with those regulations.

Appeals

We are not required to purchase any property that is offered back therefore if the decision is not to purchase the property there is no right to appeal. However, if you feel that we have not applied the policy correctly or followed the correct procedure you may contact us within 28 days of receiving the decision notice and your enquiry will be dealt with under our complaint procedure.

Further information is available on GOV.UK or you can contact the team by email - Housing.rtb@hullcc.gov.uk.