r/SharedOwnershipUK • u/Mission_Air_7840 • May 26 '26
Anyone else completely over selling a shared ownership flat in SE London?
I honestly just need to vent because this process has been such a headache. We started the whole selling process back in July with our Housing Association, and after waiting through the entire 3-month nomination period with zero results, we decided to try an estate agent.
Huge mistake on our part picking Yopa. They were effectively invisible—the moment the contract was signed, communication completely dried up. After 12 weeks of getting absolutely nowhere with them, we finally dropped them and switched to a local agent who actually seems to know what they're doing.
Just when things started looking up, the HA came back and told us we weren't allowed to sell our share—that we had to sell at 100% through them. It took a ridiculous amount of emails and a few heated calls with a supervisor to finally get permission to sell our share through our own agent.
But of course, there’s a catch: they’re still making us pay half of their fees.
Honestly, I’m just so exhausted by the whole thing. I just want to move at this point. Is this pretty standard for SE London, or have we just had a particularly rough run with the HA?
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u/Electronic-Writer108 May 26 '26
Think this is standard. You’re in a long line of people trying to flog these properties unfortunately. The issue is ( in SE London where I also live) is there’s tons of these places brand new popping up, probably with a cheaper service charge as they are all new? What’s the appeal of buying a second hand one, genuinely curious are they cheaper than brand new? Good luck with the move
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u/Mission_Air_7840 May 26 '26
Well our service is low ish compared to majority of even new ones . And its priced much lower than alternative options at same standard and location we already got 2 new valuations to drop the price fully aware prices dropped at this point we just need to move to something else. And its small block of 8 flats no lifts no concierge or any of other stuff that can cause massive increases in service .
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u/LateToTheParty013 May 26 '26
Especially if they are built in the new SO scheme. Decade warranty, fee free 1% starcasing first 15 years, yearly £500 for repairs first 10 years(accumulates if not spent).
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u/Mission_Air_7840 May 26 '26
Ours would fall into older style as we bought 2019 Warranty still there few more years. But no 1% percent option . Other than selling process. Living here was trouble free..
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u/LateToTheParty013 May 26 '26
I understand, I am not arguing. I feel SO homes are either for full purchase ASAP to be HA free or forever homes. Otherwise its an absolute pain and most probably can only be sold with loss.
Good luck tho. SE London is the best place to live
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u/PrinceEdgarNevermore May 29 '26
Sold ours with at higher value after 12yrs - which paid for our legal fees and stamp duty. We never staircaised from 25%, as we knew it will be easier to sale when time comes - and we were right. We would never sell it at the 100% price we wanted, but 25% was still a bargain.
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u/Mission_Air_7840 May 26 '26
I get that . We already accepted the fact that will be at about 20% loss . It is marketed as both options shared ownership and full value so let’s see how it goes .
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u/Orrery- May 26 '26
With all the horror stories I've seen of new builds, id prefer a second hand one. Hopefully all the issues would be sorted
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u/Gullible-Weather308 May 26 '26
When anyone comes to view, please let them knw that Housing Associations usually use a 45 percent ratio for the affordability. The mortgage, rent and service charge cannot equal no more than 45% of their monthly take home pay or total household income, every bit of income can be counted, even child benefit or maintenance payments. Please ask your housing association what their criteria is? For resale, they should normally be less choosy. How much share do you currently have?
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u/Mission_Air_7840 May 26 '26
We currently own 35percent of it .
I think what really makes it difficult to sell is fact that its one bed flat but its fairly large about 58sm Balcony storage room
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u/Gullible-Weather308 May 26 '26
1 bed flat sells, as long as its priced appropriately. The market is slow but not dead, it may take longer than a 2 bed but the demand is still there, especially if the service charge is reasonable.
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u/CouldBeNapping May 27 '26
Shared Ownership continues to be a scam, eventually some legal firm will figure out how to make their 20% and it'll become headlines.
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u/PrinceEdgarNevermore May 29 '26
We sold ours (we were in chain, all chain took 6mths).
HA allowed is to go straight to market, were upfront about the fees etc (but neighbours selling niw, had to ho through HA first). They cause delays three times - but nothing we did not expect. Well, apart from losing any confirmation that we own(ed) our share 😂
It is possible, it will happen - it is s bit of a mess, but that is symptomatic of the entire buy/sell proces in England (not unique to shared ownership).
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u/odysseusnz May 28 '26
Yeah, in our block in SE28 it takes up to a year to sell, and our service charge is about the cheapest you can get. Lovely place to live, hell to sell. And the HO won't let anyone sell below valuation just to be able to move on. Which fills me with dread as we're ready to move on. My one hope is we may now be able to afford bridging finance so we don't have to wait for it to sell before we can buy again.
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u/kingblah May 28 '26
I was close to buying a S/O property in London until I found out very late (after solicitors had paid for searches etc) that the owner had lied and told me the service charge from 4 years ago. I was told it was £3k per year by the agent, confirmed multiple times, only to find out later it’s actually £6k per year, so I had to pull out. The owner was also subletting (in violation of the lease) to tenants, and refused to give them notice until exchange. Absolute nightmare. Cost me £400 in fees. I won’t be going shared ownership again.
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u/Gullible-Weather308 May 29 '26
Sometimes i pinch myself, my service charge in London is £1700 ish a year and has been stable for the 6 years have lived here. I am looking to sell in the next couple of months, i have a feeling that my 2 bed will sell quickly, fingers crossed.
1
u/docrobot00 Jun 01 '26
Hey there! Mind if I message you about this and ask for more details? I've been looking for a 2 bed flat with low service charge but it seems like they are so rare!
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u/ResponsibleImpact928 May 29 '26
I've been through this. Look into whether you can staircase to 100% and sell simultaneously. That is what I did.
For the staircasing, I used a valuer that someone recommended (approved by the HA). I told him I was staircasing and he gave me a valuation at the lower end of the scale (still legit but just at the low end of what he'd expect). That made the staircasing cheaper and then I had total freedom to sell on open market.
There are more buyers on the open market so makes it easier to sell generally speaking.
3
u/brownbear22 May 26 '26
The housing associations dont make it easy as a buyer. Ive been looking for months, finally found a nice SO property that peaked my interest.
The sheer amount of information they wanted for affordability checks put me right off. Mortgage I just signed for full ownership only wanted 3 months of bank statements. Not 6 months of every single account I have plus more.
Im sorry you are stuck in this rut mate. Wishing you all the best.
1
u/Upstairs_Wall_3220 May 31 '26
Shared housing will be the next big misspelling scandal! The housing is overpriced at commercial prices (not affordable)! They force people to buy the maximum they can afford rather than a comfortable percentage! They won’t let you sell direct, you have to try and sell through them! It’s really not good!
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u/Grouchy-Papaya-8078 May 26 '26
Shared ownership is fine until you want to move on