Right to acquire

You can make a joint application with:

• someone who shares your tenancy
• up to 3 family members who’ve lived with you for the past 12 months (even if they do not share your tenancy)

Who does not qualify

You cannot use Right to Acquire if:

• you’re being made bankrupt
• a court has ordered you to leave your home
• you’re a council tenant - you may be able to use Right to Buy instead
• you have ‘Preserved Right to Buy’

We will tell you the discount you will get on the price of your property when you apply to buy your home. It will be between £9,000 and £16,000, depending on where you live.

The discount might be reduced if you have used the Right to Acquire or Right to Buy in the past.

To apply to buy your Housing Association home you must fill in the Right to Acquire enquiry form which can be downloaded from our online portal or alternatively you can fill out an RTA1 application form and send it to us.

We must say yes or no within four weeks of getting your application or eight weeks if we have been your landlord for less than five years. If we say no, we must explain why. You cannot appeal against our decision.

If we agree to sell, we will send you an offer. We must do this within eight weeks of saying yes if you are buying a freehold property, or 12 weeks if it is a leasehold property.

We might offer you the choice of buying your home or another empty one we own. You don’t have to accept the other property and we don’t have to offer you one.

If we agree to sell, our offer will tell you:

• The price we think you should pay for the property and how it was worked out
• Your discount and how it was worked out
• A description of the property and any land included in the price
• Our estimate of any service charges (for a flat or maisonette) for the first five years
• Any known problems with the property’s structure, such as subsidence

Once you get our offer, you have 12 weeks to tell us whether you still want to buy.

If you do not reply, we will send you a reminder called an ‘RTA4’. You’ll have at least 28 days to reply. If you do not reply, we will send a final reminder called an ‘RTA5’. If you don’t reply to that, we can drop your application.

You can pull out of the sale and continue to rent at any time.

If you disagree with our offer, please contact us and explain why.

If you think we have set your home’s market value too high, you must write to us within three months of getting the offer and ask for an independent valuation.

A district valuer from HM Revenue & Customs will visit your home and decide how much it is worth. You will then have 12 weeks to accept their valuation or pull out of the sale.

If you sell your home within 10 years of buying it using the Right to Acquire, you must first offer it to your old landlord.

The property should be sold at the full market price agreed between you and the landlord. If you cannot agree, a district valuer will say how much your home is worth and set the price. 

If the landlord doesn’t agree to buy your home within eight weeks, you can sell it to anyone.

If you sell your home within five years of buying it, you’ll have to pay back some or all the discount you got.

If you sell within the first year, you’ll have to pay back all of the discount. On top of this, the amount you pay back depends on the value of your home when you sell it. So, if you got a 10% discount, you’ll have to pay back 10% of the selling price.

If you sell after the first year, the total amount you pay back reduces. You pay back:

• 80% of the discount in the second year
• 60% of the discount in the third year
• 40% of the discount in the fourth year
• 20% of the discount in the fifth year

Example

You bought your home worth £100,000 and got a 10% discount (£10,000). You then sold your home after 18 months for £120,000.

10% of £120,000 is £12,000. As you’re in the second year, you would repay 80% of £12,000 (£9,600).