Selling your shared ownership home
Selling your shared ownership home is sometimes called a resale. Here, we describe the steps you need to take to sell if you own less than 100% of your home.
Your lease states that we have a nomination period to try and find a buyer for your home, the nomination period is between four to eight weeks and aims to help other first-time buyers get on to the housing ladder via shared ownership.
After the initial two weeks, if a buyer has not been found we will also be marketing at 100% outright for the remainder of the nomination period. This also helps to ensure that you're given an efficient and cost-effective service.
Some residents and buyers in our apartment blocks may experience issues securing mortgages because of changes in building safety advice.
Please seek advice on this directly from your lender or mortgage broker before applying so you do not incur any unnecessary valuation or solicitors' costs.
First steps – the valuation
The first step is to instruct a surveyor to value your home and this needs to be an independent valuer, qualified through the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), as stated in your lease.
We have a panel of surveyors that you can choose from. You also have the option to instruct a RICS registered surveyor of your choice; however, they must meet certain criteria, details of which can be found in our leaflet for instructing your own independent surveyor.
The surveyors on our panel are independent of L&Q and are qualified by RICS. They have a wealth of experience in valuing homes and offer preferred rates to L&Q residents.
Once you have decided who you wish to use to value your home, you must contact your chosen surveyor directly by quoting the reference ‘LQ-Resales'.
During your call with the surveyor, they will arrange with you a suitable time to visit your home and collect payment of their fees. The report will be provided to you and will set out the price at which you can sell your share. This price will take into account the length of the lease you have remaining and include any home improvements that you have made.
Photos, floorplans and the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
Once you have your valuation report, we'll instruct an independent marketing company to provide professional photographs of your property, a floorplan and an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)*. Please note that your buyer may also want additional safety certification.
We can also provide 3D imagery which allows prospective purchasers to virtually walk through your home. L&Q will cover the cost of this service as part of the resale administration fee.
To comply with data protection regulations, we need your permission to pass on your details to our marketing partner, so you will need to sign a GDPR declaration form and return it to us with the valuation report.
*To comply with European Legislation, an EPC must be provided to prospective buyers.
Confirmation of sale
Once you have the valuation report and are happy to proceed, you will need to provide us with:
- a copy of the valuation report
- a signed GDPR declaration form
- a copy of your lease if you have it
Please email these documents to our Resales team.
Once we've received everything we need, we'll send you a 'confirmation of sale' document outlining all of the sales particulars, and this will be used to market your property online.
You need to carefully review the sales particulars and confirm you are happy to sell. We strongly suggest that you do not make an offer on another property until we place your home on the market.
Once we receive the signed confirmation of sale documents from you, we will list your property online.
Marketing and viewings
During the nomination period when we are marketing your home, you will not be permitted to sell your home, either privately or through an estate agent.
Once your property is listed online, we'll provide your contact details to anyone who is registered for shared ownership and anyone wishing to purchase 100%. They will contact you to arrange a viewing at a mutually convenient time.
If for any reason you cannot honour the viewing dates once they have been arranged, it will be your responsibility to contact the viewers directly to rearrange, or cancel, with them.
Reservations and instructing solicitors
After a successful viewing of your home, a potential buyer will need to submit a reservation form to us and once we receive this, we will allocate the property in line with our selection and allocation policy.
The successful applicant will be required to pay us a reservation fee of £500 (which is refundable on completion). They must also attend a financial interview to fully check their affordability, which we arrange. After a successful interview, solicitors will need to be instructed by all parties.
Once a buyer is in place, we will instruct solicitors to act for us, and you will need to appoint your own solicitor. We have a list of conveyancing solicitors that you may wish to use, who have experience in shared ownership.
Management enquiries
Once instructed, your solicitor will be expected to provide your buyer's solicitor with responses to management enquiries. This is known as a Landlords’ Enquiry Pack.
The Landlords’ Enquiry Pack can be provided electronically and there is a fee for providing the information. For the current fees payable, please refer to our list of homeowner admin fees:
Your solicitors will be contacted about this pack after they have received instruction from us and as a leaseholder, you are responsible for this cost.
If you also have an independent managing agent, your solicitor will also need to contact them about any additional costs they may charge. Details of any applicable managing agent will be provided to your solicitor at the appropriate time.
Please note that the compilation of the Landlords’ Enquiry Pack can take up to 15 working days so it is important for your solicitor to request this in good time.
Find out more on our landlord enquiries page.
What if there’s no buyer at the end of the nomination period?
If there's no buyer after the nomination period ends, we will waive our nomination rights and send you a letter advising you of your options and the process to sell your home on the open market via an estate agent.
This will involve you selling the property at 100%, your buyer will purchase the additional unowned share (this is known as ‘Back to Back Staircasing’). On completion, you will receive the money for your share of the property and L&Q will receive ours.
Please note, as the buyer for your property will not have been introduced by L&Q, you will be responsible for covering our solicitor costs as we'll be waiving our resale admin fee.
You will be responsible for paying your estate agent fees and your own solicitor's costs.
You would not be able to accept a lower offer than the RICS valuation unless you're prepared to take the full shortfall (not just the % share you own).
You will be able to accept a higher offer. Where this is achieved, you will be able to keep 100% of the additional monies received, L&Q will only require our share based on the RICS valuation.
Further information
If you require any further information on selling your home, please don't hesitate to get in touch with our customer service centre.
As part of the sale process, we would recommend speaking directly to one of our financial consultants, as we think you will benefit from their advice and experience.
If we find a buyer for your home, we'll charge a percentage admin fee based on the full market value of your property, plus VAT.
The percentage admin fee payable is outlined in your lease but is generally between 1% and 1.25% of the full open market valuation. We will confirm the percentage amount in the confirmation of sale particulars.
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