What is Right to Acquire?

Specialist conveyancer, Suzanne Wong, takes a look at the Right to Acquire scheme.

If your landlord is a Housing Association then you may be eligible to purchase your home under Right to Acquire, while the Right to Buy scheme applies to tenants of council properties.

A Right to Acquire works in much the same way as Right to Buy. The main difference between the two schemes is that under the Right to Acquire, the acquired property may not be the one in which the tenant currently lives i.e. if eligible for the Right to Acquire your landlord may offer you a different property to the one in which you live.

Do I qualify for the Right to Acquire scheme?

As with Right to Buy, there are certain criteria that must be met before you can consider applying.

To qualify for Right to Acquire, the property must fit the following criteria:

• built or bought by the Housing Association on or after 1st April 1997
• paid for through a social housing grant or transferred from a local council to a Housing Association on or after 1st April 1997
• must be a self-contained property and your only or main home

There are additional criteria that must also be met:

• you must have had a public sector landlord (including housing associations, councils, the armed services, NHS trust and foundation trusts) for 3 years (or 2 years if the tenancy commenced before 18th January 2005) and your landlord must be registered with the Regulator of Social Housing
• You must have either an assured, specified assured shorthold or secure tenancy. Generally, although there are some exceptions, assured shorthold tenancies or a long tenancy with a term more than 21 years do not qualify.

As with Right to Buy you can choose to make a joint application with:

• someone who shares your tenancy
• up to 3 family members who have lived with you for the past 12 months

Similar to Right to Buy, you may not have the Right to Acquire in circumstances such as (but not limited to) where you are/are being made bankrupt etc. and some premises are excluded, for example properties occupied as a consequence of employment with the landlord etc.

If your home does not qualify, your Housing Association could offer you the option of buying a different property. However, not all Housing Association tenants have this right.
This scheme does not apply to housing co-operative tenants.

However, you should also consider if you already have a Right to Buy as opposed to a Right to Acquire. This could be the case if you are:

• a secure Housing Association tenant
• a former council tenant whose property was transferred to a Housing Association with a ‘Preserved Right to Buy’

Right to Acquire discounts

Where a property is able to be bought under the scheme, the price offered to the tenant is usually lower than market rate. You will need to discuss this with your Housing Association and if you cannot agree you can ask for an independent valuation.

However, should you sell the property within 5 years, some or all of the discount is likely to be required to be paid back to the Housing Association. Furthermore, if you sell within 10 years of the purchase, the property must be offered in the first instance to the Housing Association you bought the property from, and only if they reject the opportunity to purchase can the property then be placed on the open market.

What is a secure tenant?

Before 1989 council house tenants were usually offered a secure tenancy, sometimes known as a lifetime tenancy. From 1989, new tenancies were usually granted as assured, which offer a fixed term tenancy. Where a property has been transferred from a council to a Housing Association, any secure tenancy is likely to have been transferred to an assured tenancy. It is likely that if your landlord is a Housing Association, you will have an assured tenancy.

However, where the property has transferred from the council to a Housing Association, a Preserved Right to Buy may exist. If the benefit exists, and the tenant qualifies under the Right to Buy scheme, the tenant can utilise this instead of the Right to Acquire scheme.

Right to Acquire solicitors

Holmes & Hills Solicitors have regular dealings with various Housing Associations and are in an excellent position to offer specialist Right to Acquire conveyancing for your property purchase. We can offer a free, no obligation quote for your conveyancing.