Staircasing

The first thing we recommend you do is to speak to a financial consultant to find out if you can afford to buy more shares in your home.

They'll be able to tell you if staircasing is financially possible and how far you can staircase.

• Independent financial consultants (PDF)

You need to instruct an independent RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) / FRICS (Fellow of Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) registered surveyor to complete a valuation report.

You can instruct your own or we have a panel of experienced surveyors who can help you – our panel provides very competitive rates to L&Q residents.

• L&Q’s panel of surveyors (PDF)

If you want to use your own surveyor, they must be: 

• independent and not associated with any estate agents 
• unrelated to you 
• not employed by any bank/building society 
• registered with the recognised qualification of FRICS or RICS

We always require a copy of the full valuation report. It should be valid for a period of three months – and until completion takes place.

The report should assume that the property has been maintained to a good standard. This is within the requirements of your lease.

It must include at least three comparable properties used to determine the value.

It must also state that we can use the contents of the valuation report.

Any home improvements must be declared using our home improvement form (PDF).

Please note that we may ask the surveyor to justify the valuation provided.

As per the terms of your lease, your staircasing transaction must be completed within three months of the date of the valuation. If an extension is required, you’ll be responsible for any related costs (updates are usually only valid for a further three-month period).

You should also be aware that if the value of your home changes if a new valuation is required, we’ll need to recalculate your staircase premium, regardless of whether the value has increased or decreased.

It’s a good idea, once you’ve received your valuation, to get in touch with your financial consultant to make sure you can still afford to buy more shares in your home.

If you’ve not spoken to them yet, we strongly suggest that you seek financial advice as soon as possible.

When you’re ready to proceed, please email your staircasing request to our Homeownership team.

You’ll need to include your valuation report and home improvement form – if applicable.

We’ll also need you to confirm that you wish to buy more shares as well as your contact details and full address.

After we receive your valuation report, we’ll calculate the premium of the share you don’t own. We’ll then contact you to pay the administration fee for this service.

To see the full list of our administration fees, please read:

• L&Q's homeowner administration fees (PDF)

Once we’ve received your payment, we’ll email you a confirmation letter detailing the calculations and a response form.

Please complete the response form to confirm how you would like to proceed, how many shares you want to buy and your solicitor's details.

You can instruct your own solicitor or we have a panel of dedicated solicitors who can help you. They are all experienced in assisting shared owners to buy more shares.

• L&Q’s panel of conveyancing solicitors (PDF)

We will not process your application until this form has been signed by all leaseholders and returned to us.

If you’re buying 100% of your home and currently pay a service charge – which we pass on to a third-party managing agent, your solicitor will let you know if you need to continue paying us after completion or pay the third-party agent directly. When there is no third party involved, you will continue to pay service charges directly to us.

If you’re buying 100% of your home and do not currently pay a service charge, you will no longer have to pay us rent or have any further communication with us.

If you staircase to shares higher than 75% and want to sell, it’s unlikely that we'll be able to find a buyer for your home. That’s because first-time shared ownership buyers can only buy between 25% and 75% of a home.

However, before you put your home up for sale on the open market, you must let us know so that we can issue you a 'waive' letter confirming you can sell via a high street agent. To find out more, please visit our selling your shared ownership home page.

If you’re buying less than 100% of your home, we'll update our records with your new share and confirm what the new rent figure is you have to pay.