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    Shared ownership: 'It's a con and we felt trapped'
    United Kingdom

    Shared ownership: ‘It’s a con and we felt trapped’

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    13 Comments

    1. PatrickTheSosij on

      There needs to be a bind for the shared owner builder forced to buy your share if you want to sell.

      Shared ownership IS good it just has this selling flaw

    2. upthetruth1 on

      We need to build more homes, abolish leaseholds and ensure people who buy their homes actually own their homes entirely

    3. NuPNua on

      Just as a counterpoint, I brought a shared ownership flat in a scheme run by the local authority a decade ago, for similar reasons to the people in this story in that I would never have been able to get the deposit together to buy a whole flat as one man, and I’ve never had these issues. The council are pretty quick at dealing with repairs in the communal areas when we’ve had issues with the lift or the like, our service charges all come with a full breakdown of costs and a proper appeal process if you disagree, and several of my neighbours who moved in when the building went up have managed to sell up and move on.

    4. ArtRevolutionary3929 on

      Shared ownership is for people who love renting so much, they want to pay twice. For everyone else, it’s best avoided.

    5. the_englishman on

      Whilst I would absolutely not want to be in these shoes as the situation sounds shit, does no one read the Shared ownership contracts before signing? Did they not seek advise from a solicitor before signing? This seems like a pretty basic step before entering into an agreement like this.

    6. senecaa25 on

      How the fuck are these agents allowed to raise service charges like that?
      The government should step in. Just like landlord’s can’t double your rent, these agents should not be able to quadruple your service charge. Jesus!

    7. rolotonight on

      Sounds like it becomes an issue when you buy within a block of flats and there is a middle man managing agent involved making up the service charges as they go along.

      I’m in a Shared Ownership home on a Council estate and it is well managed, albeit they haven’t changed the leases to CPI rent increase rather than RPI so just more reason to get the other half off them.

      £900 for a three bedroom house. Can’t knock it.

    8. Sarabando on

      ban companies owning residential property and overnight the price of houses would nose dive. As long as investment firms can hoard homes like Smaug the price will always climb and supply will dwindle.

    9. RoohsMama on

      Couldn’t find a shared ownership property in my part of Wales and now I’m kind of glad

    10. jamesanthc on

      I worked for a local home builder/social landlord business up here in the NE, in IT Support
      Every year we’d have a meeting about business performance and wins etc. This always got mentioned as a really good thing.
      We all thought it was a scam and said this several times.

    11. SGalaktech on

      Tbf if you can’t see the pitfalls before you’re in it, how thick are you??

    12. TS_Horror on

      Honestly as with most negative shared ownership articles, this isn’t actually shared ownership scheme that is at fault. It is leasehold/service charges/communal areas and as usual it is all flats. If they owned their property 100% outright, they would still have a leasehold and still have the same issues.

      Shared ownership scheme is actually really good, mortgage & rent is usually lower than private rent in most areas and it gets you onto the ladder. Selling will always be more difficult than selling a property you own 100% of, but anyone buying shared ownership should have their eyes open and acknowledge that when buying. I bought a shared ownership property 3 years ago and not had any issue related to the shared ownership scheme.

      Don’t let articles like this put you off, it is a great scheme, but it does have draw backs that buying 100% doesn’t have, so read your agreements and contracts carefully before agreeing. But the issues in this article aren’t at all related to shared ownership, just leasehold and communal areas and services management.

    13. Scary-Dot3069 on

      Arent all shared ownership, house or flat, leasehold? As in they all have a service charge to the shared owner?

      Obviously flats in blocks have service charges etc which are laughable joke within themselves but if i look at a shared ownership house now, it has a service charge on it