Buying Your Home

If you have been a tenant for 2 years or more, or 5 years if your tenancy started after 25th January 2005, you probably have the right to buy your home. You will also get a discount on the purchase price, depending on the length of your tenancy.

However there are exceptions. You would not normally have the right to buy your home where:

we have a suspended possession order on your home; or
you live in a sheltered housing scheme; or
you live in elderly persons' accommodation.

The Government's Department for Communities and Local Government, (previously known as the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister), produces an explanatory booklet and application forms. You can get more information and download the booklet by clicking on the following link to the Department for Communities and Local Government| . If you want to download the application form follow this link to the RTB1 Application Form|.

You can also get our explanatory booklet The Right to Buy and application forms from our Home Ownership Team by phoning our Customer Services Team on 0800 408 2000. Or you can download The Right to Buy booklet| or a Gujerati version of the booklet| here.

Gloucester City Homes service is FREE and you should beware of other organisations who may contact you, offering to arrange the purchase of your council home and arrange a mortgage for you; there may be a cost involved. If you are concerned in any way by such approaches don't hesitate to contact our Customer Services Team on 0800 408 2000.

For information about funding your purchase, please refer to the Financial Services Authority| or obtain independent financial advice.

Your Step By Step Guide to Buying Your Own Home

Step 1 - Applying to buy

Request a Right to Buy claim for (Form RTB1) from Gloucester City Homes by calling freephone 0800 4082000. Gloucester City Homes will give you one for free if you ask (be wary of other people offering you forms, especially if they ask you to pay them for this).

Fill the form in carefully. It is used to decide:

whether you have the right to buy; and
how much discount you will get.

When you have filled in the form, return it to GCH. Because this form is an important legal document, it is a good idea to use recorded delivery or to deliver it by hand and ask for a receipt.

Step 2 - Your landlords Response Notice

Having received your claim form, your landlord (Gloucester City Homes) must send you a notice (Form RTB2) telling you whether or not you have the Right to Buy. You should get this within 4 weeks from the date on which your landlord received your RTB1 form.

If your landlord says that you don't have the Right to Buy your home, they must explain why. If you do not agree with the explanation you can get advice from the Citizen's Advice Bureau or from a solicitor.

Step 3 - Your landlord's Section 125 Notice

If the council has agreed to sell your home to you, it will send you a separate offer notice (known as a section 125 Notice) which tells you the price you have to pay and the terms and conditions of the sale.

The section 125 Notice is an important document and you should read it very carefully. It will :

describe the property which you have the right to buy.
tell you the price that the council thinks you should pay for it.

To calculate this the council will first work out how much your home was worth at the date at which you submitted your application form, and then take off your discount. If you have made improvements, these are not allowed to put the price up.

It will give estimates of the service charges or improvement costs you will have to pay if you buy your home.
It will describe any structural defects which the council knows about.
It will contain the terms and conditions that the council thinks should be attached to the sale. These may be set out either in the form of a draft of the legal document for you to sign, or as part of the notice, or on a separate sheet

Step 4 - Appealing to the District Valuer

If you think that the councils market valuation of your home as set out in the Section 125 Notice is too high, you have the right to obtain an independant valuation from the District Valuer. Before doing so, you have to tell the council, within 3 months of receiving the Section 125 Notice, that you want a "determination of value" under Section 128 of the Housing Act 1985. You then have four weeks to put your case to the District Valuer who will in turn need to inspect your home.

The District Valuer's valuation will be the one that counts. Even if it is higher than the council's valuation, you still have to either accept it, or, withdraw your application to buy your home.

Step 5 - Resolving any questions concerning the Section 125 notice

Of you want to question anything else in the Section 125 notice (the size of your discount, service charges, conditions of sale, your home's boundaries etc), you should contact the councils legal department. Should you still be unable to resolve any issue then you have the right to go to the county court for a ruling. But this can be expensive, and you should get legal aid first.

Step 6 - Getting a survey

Before you finally decide whether to buy, you should get an independent survey from a qualified surveyor. When you apply for a mortgage, the bank or building society will have a survey done, but this is only for the value of your home. It may not uncover any structural problems there may be.

Step 7 - Telling the council what you want to do next

Having been supplied with all the necessary information you must now decide whether you want to;

buy your home outright for the full right to buy price, less any discount for which you are eligible; or
forget about buying, withdraw your application and carry on paying rent.

When you have decided, you must tell the council in writing. You must do this within twelve weeks of receiving your Section 125 Notice. If you do not let the council know what you intend to do in time you will be sent a reminder. If you do not reply within 28 days, the council will assume that you do not wish to buy and your application will not be dealt with any further.

Step 8 - Enquiring about a mortgage

If you need a mortgage then this is when you need to talk to a bank or building society in more detail.

Step 9 - Completing your purchase

If you are happy with the council's terms for selling your home to you, and you have arranged to raise the money, you are ready to go ahead and buy. You should advise the council that you are ready and ask your solicitor for advice on legal documents and making your payment.