If you wish to sell your Shared Ownership property, please read through this Guide to Selling which outlines the process. You will then need to arrange for your property to be valued by a RICS surveyor and inform CHS of your intent to sell.  You can find local surveyors here: https://www.ricsfirms.com/

The ‘Sale Price’ will be determined according to the percentage share of the property you own. If you own a 50% share in your property and the Chartered Surveyor values the property at an ‘Open Market Value’ of £150,000, the ‘Sale Price’ of your property will be £75,000.

Before your property can go on the market you will need an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). You may have received one when you purchased your property. If you do not have one, you will need to obtain one. You may be able to obtain this from the government online register at www.epcregister.com

To prepare your property for sale, we recommend that all rooms are tidied, clutter is cleared and all curtains and blinds are fully opened. This will allow for natural light, help to present your property well and also create the ideal ambiance for your photographs. Once your property is advertised on the Share to Buy and CHS Group websites, interested parties will register their interest with CHS. The Customer Services team will send you an email with their contact details so you can contact them directly to organise a viewing which is suitable for you both. Once you have accepted an offer, please send an email to CHS with the purchaser name/s and the figure accepted for your share. You can then ask the purchaser to send their paperwork to CHS for approval at info@chsgroup.org.uk

Once you have a buyer for your property, you will need to appoint a solicitor to act on your behalf. It will be your solicitor’s responsibility to liaise with both the purchaser’s solicitor and the CHS solicitor to see the sale through to completion. All enquiries must be directed from your solicitor to ours. For your information, please find below the documentation that CHS would require from all purchasers before our solicitors can be instructed:

• Evidence of their deposit funds (bank statement)
• Mortgage in Principle
• Their solicitor’s details (including contact name and email address)
• Photographic ID (passport or driving licence)
• Proof of address (utility bill in their name)
• Completed affordability assessment with our panel broker
• Proof of income

Once the sale has completed, please ensure you cancel all Direct Debits payable to CHS to ensure no additional funds are collected.

If the offer you wish to accept differs from the original valuation, you will simply need to ask the surveyor to confirm in writing that the new price is fair and reasonable for both parties.

If your property is successfully sold to a new purchaser, CHS will charge a fee of 1% + VAT of the ‘Sale Price”. This covers all of our costs including our own solicitor fees and administration costs throughout the whole of the process. The fees must be paid on completion or this may cause serious problems with the registration of the sale.

Your lease allows a nomination period for CHS to find a buyer in need of affordable housing, this is usually an 8 week period.  If you wish to advertise with an estate agent prior to the end of the nomination period, please contact CHS to discuss.  You will still be required to pay CHS Group’s 1% plus VAT fee as well as the estate agent’s fee.  The agent will need to provide CHS with the application documents for any buyer as listed in the Guide to Shared Ownership. Please ensure that the agent has all information regarding any staircasing restriction or other restrictions for the sale of the property.

You will need to confirm in writing to CHS that you intend to staircase, with confirmation of the percentage share you wish to staircase to, as well as your solicitor’s details and proof of funds for purchasing the extra shares. Once we have this confirmation we will then instruct our solicitors who will liaise directly with your appointed solicitors throughout the staircasing process.

If you increase your share your rent will decrease accordingly. If you increase your share to 100% you will no longer pay rent on a share, however you may still be liable for service charges.

Once you have received your valuation, you will then need to appoint a solicitor to act on your behalf throughout the process.

The valuation will be valid for three months from the date on the valuation report supplied by the surveyor. The valuation will also determine the cost of the share you wish to purchase. You may need to request an updated valuation if your staircasing transaction does not complete before the original valuation expires.

Please email our Shared Ownership team directly