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Social Homebuy

Watering Plants

This is a new scheme that gives more of our tenants the opportunity to become home owners, by purchasing their existing, rented homes.

The scheme allows you to buy your home on an outright basis (100%) or on a part-buy, part-rent basis. Under the part-buy, part-rent arrangement you can buy either 50% or 75% of your home and rent the remaining part from the Guinness Trust.

If you buy a part of your home in the first instance, you can buy more and more as your financial circumstances allow. On the other hand, you may prefer to continue owning part of your home on a shared ownership basis.

Discount

Each sale will be entitled to a small discount. The discount rates have been set by the Government. They vary from area to area and will also depend on what proportion of your home you choose to buy. The range of discounts is set out here:

50% purchase

75% purchase

100% purchase

Area A

8,000

12,000

16,000

Area B

6,750

10,125

13,500

Area C

5,500

8,250

11,000

Area D

5,000

7,500

10,000

Area E

4,500

6,750

9,000


Conditions of the scheme

Each home can only be bought by the legal tenant, who may wish to include family members in the purchase if they are permanent residents in the home. No sales will be made to tenants who have rent arrears.

Repairs and Maintenance

After you have bought your home (either all of it, or part of it) you will be responsible for arranging and paying for the repairs inside your home. If you live in a house then you will be responsible for repairs to the inside and outside of your home.

If you live in a flat then you will be responsible for repairs to the inside of your flat. Repairs and improvements to the communal areas and facilities (e.g. lifts and roofs) will be undertaken by the Guinness Trust, for which you will pay a monthly service charge. If you decide to buy your flat we will let you know the expected cost of the improvement programme for your block over the next 5 years.

Mortgage, rent and service charges

Whether you choose to buy all of your home, or part of it, you will be responsible for arranging a mortgage.

As with all mortgages, your home will be at risk if you default on your mortgage payments.

If you choose to part-buy, part-rent your home, the part of your home that you do not buy will continue to be owned by the Guinness Trust and you will be charged a rent for this.

If you currently pay a service charge to cover the cost of providing services to your home, this will continue after your purchase. The service charge will continue to be calculated in the same way that it is for our tenants on your estate. We will clearly indicate what service charges are associated with your property.


Further information can be obtained from:

Jane Lofthouse-Smith, the Sales Administrator on 01494 607218 or email her at Jane.Lofthouse-smith@guinness.org.uk


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