Selling your shared ownership home
If you want to sell your shared ownership home, you’ll need to contact our Sales team, who’ll be able to support you through the sales process.
Your lease generally gives us the first option to market and sell your home to a buyer. We’re on a mission to match you with a buyer in just 4 weeks, this is called your nomination period.
To get the ball rolling, let’s take a look at what we’ll need from you:
- To find out how much your home is worth, you’ll need to arrange and pay for a valuation by a RICS qualified surveyor (Royal institute of Chartered Surveyors). We provide a list of suggested Surveyors in our Resale Sellers guide, but you can also contact any RICS qualified Surveyor.
- They’ll provide a valuation report, confirming the full market value of your home, which is valid for 3 months. If the sale takes longer, you’ll need to ask them to extend the valuation.
- Your sale price will be calculated by the full market value multiplied by the percentage share you own, for example:
- Full market value = £200,000
- Share owned = 25%
- Value of share = 25% of £200,000 = £50,000
- Once you have a valuation, you’ll need to complete and sign the application form which can found in the Resale Property Information Form (PIF)
- Send it to sales@vividhomes.co.uk with the following attachments:
- Copy of your lease
- Copy of the Energy Performance Certificate
- RICS valuation report
- Photos
- Floorplan
- Proof of address and photo ID
- After we have received the above, we'll be in touch to discuss your sale and we’ll advertise your property on the Share to Buy website, usually within 5 working days.
- You’ll need to find and instruct a solicitor to act for you during the sale. We recommend using a solicitor who’s used to dealing with shared ownership sales and have some suggestions in our Resale Sellers guide
- We instruct our solicitor to start the resale process
- Our solicitor writes to yours to give details of payments required for a legal pack and legal fees. It’s your responsibility to pay these fees
- The legal pack will be produced within 10 days of receipt of payment, and provides information to help respond to enquiries raised by the buyers solicitors about the home
- Your solicitor will be responsible for collecting a share of rent and service charges from your buyer on the day of completion to cover the month in which they complete
- It’s important that you continue to pay your rent and service charges until your sale completes, otherwise you’ll be in breach of your lease and the sale may be stopped
Selling your property can take a number of months to go through. There’s a lot of back and forth with legal checks, surveys, and mortgage arrangements, so it’s good to be prepared for a bit of a wait!
- The RICS valuation – costs vary depending on the surveyor used so always ask for a quote before instructing, and also find out what they charge to extend your valuation after the initial three months
- Selling fee (nomination fee) – If we find you a buyer during the nomination period, there’ll be a nomination fee to pay. This is set out in your lease, so it’s worth having a quick look there for the details.
- Solicitor costs – Once you have a buyer, you’ll need to appoint a solicitor to handle the legal side of things for you. You’ll be responsible for their fees, so it’s a good idea to ask them for a clear breakdown of costs upfront. You’ll also need to cover the fees for our solicitor. Don’t worry, they’ll send you an estimate in their first letter when the process gets underway
- Management pack – Your solicitor will need a management pack from our solicitor. It includes all the key info about your property – things like service charges, insurance details, any major works coming up, and a fire risk assessment if it’s an apartment. You’ll get an estimate of the cost for this pack in the first letter from our solicitor
If we haven’t found a buyer for your home by the end of the 4 week nomination period, you’re free to instruct an estate agent to market your property. We’ll email you a copy of the Key Information Document for your property, you’ll need to ensure your estate agent uploads this to the property listing.
If your property is sold as Shared Ownership, your estate agent can contact us directly, and we’ll let them know what checks are needed to approve the buyer. It’s similar to the checks you went through when you first bought the property.
You’ll be responsible for any fees charged by the estate agent, but don’t worry - you won’t have to pay our nomination fee on top. Don’t forget to factor in other typical selling costs that there may be.
