Home ownership

To qualify for RtSO, you must meet the following criteria:

• you are over 18 years old;
• you live in a home where the RtSO applies (see below);
• you hold an un-demoted secure tenancy, an assured tenancy (including an assured shorthold tenancy), or a Localism Act fixed-term tenancy (either an assured shorthold tenancy or a flexible secure tenancy with a fixed-term of a minimum of two years). The type of tenancy you have should be clearly stated as part of your tenancy agreement. If you are unsure of what type of tenancy you have please log in to your My Home account or contact 01724 279900.
• you have been living in your current home for at least 12 months;
• you have been a tenant of a home with Social Rent or Affordable Rent for at least three years (this does not need to have been with us, or for three years in a row);
• you are not in rent arrears;
• you are not subject to legal proceedings (e.g. a notice of seeking possession has been served);
• you are not subject to a court order for possession of your home;
• you are not subject to legal proceedings on the grounds of anti-social behaviour;
• you are not subject to bankruptcy proceedings or unfulfilled credit arrangements;
• you meet the Shared Ownership eligibility requirements, including the income requirement (currently an annual gross household income of £80,000 or less outside of London, or £90,000 or less in London), and do not already own a property;
• you are unable otherwise to purchase a home suitable to meet your housing needs on the open ;
• you satisfy immigration requirements.

For further information on RtSO eligibility please refer to the Government’s guidance at The Right to Shared Ownership: A guide for tenants.

RtSO only applies to social rent and affordable rent properties which have been funded through the Affordable Homes Programme 2021 to 2026.

Your home may be exempt from RtSO if:

• it is a specialist home for older, disabled or vulnerable people;
• it is a home built in a remote rural area; or
• it is an almshouse (homes provided for a specific purpose within the community).

We may also refuse a RtSO application where the current market valuation of your home is below the total amount spent on building or acquiring the property, including any grant invested in the property.

Before applying for RtSO please contact the Home Ownership team by calling 01724 279900, or email enquiries@ongo.co.uk and we will carry out an initial property eligibility check within four weeks from receipt of your request.

If your home is not eligible we will notify you in writing explaining the reasons why. Where possible, we may offer you the option of accessing Shared Ownership on a similar property.

If the property is eligible, please complete the application form below and return it us at Ongo Homes, Ongo House, High Street, Scunthorpe, DN15 6AT or email enquiries@ongo.co.uk, stating ‘Home ownership application’ as the subject.

Upon receipt we will review your application and carry out eligibility checks against you. We will confirm the outcome to you within eight weeks from receipt of your application, and if you are eligible we will invite you to a home ownership meeting. Where possible this will be face to face.

At the home ownership meeting we will discuss with you how the Shared Ownership product works, the costs associated with Shared Ownership and your responsibilities as a Leaseholder under a Shared Ownership Lease. We will also provide you with an estimated valuation of the property and the affordability assessment will take into consideration your individual financial circumstances and determine what share you can afford to purchase.

You should purchase the maximum share that you can afford and sustain. If you are a cash buyer, then you will need to demonstrate evidence of “lack of mortgage capacity”.

You will only be able to continue with your application if you can demonstrate that you can afford and sustain the costs of Shared Ownership. If you wish to continue with your application following the home ownership meeting, we will obtain a valuation of your home, and this will be carried out within six weeks of your notification.

This valuation will be provided by an independent Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) registered valuer and it will be provided to you and/or your financial advisor.

Once we receive your affordability information (including the maximum share that you can afford) from you or your financial advisor, we will review and confirm your affordability and the share that you are able to purchase. We will then provide you with an official offer notice (subject to contract) within four weeks of receipt of the affordability information.

The offer notice will include the value of the property, the share you are purchasing, the value of the share, the rent payable on the share you do not own, the estimated annual service charge, and the length of the lease (which will be no less than 990 years). You will have four weeks to accept the offer.

Once this period has expired we may withdraw the offer and it will be at our discretion whether we continue to offer the property for sale on the same terms as the offer notice. We may also require further information regarding your eligibility or affordability.

If you accept the offer within four weeks, we will issue a memorandum of sale and standard documents called key information documents for shared owners. Our legal team or solicitors will prepare the contract pack and legal paperwork for the sale of the property on Shared Ownership terms. We will require exchange of contracts within three months of issuing the contract pack to you/your solicitors. Failure to exchange will mean that your application is withdrawn.

We may agree to extend this period but decisions will be on a case-by-case basis and at our discretion. Completion of the sale must then take place within one month of exchange of contracts.

You have the right to dispute the decision we make regarding your application for RtSO. If you would like to do so, please refer to our complaints policy. If your dispute cannot be resolved through our complaints procedure, you may wish to take your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service and further information can be found in our complaints policy.

The form of the lease will be the new Shared Ownership Model Lease 2021 and you should seek independent legal advice on the content of the Lease, including the fundamental clauses and your obligations as Leaseholder under the Lease.

Under this new Lease there is a ten-year repair and maintenance obligation on us as Landlord, however with homes purchased through the RtSO this period can be reduced according to the age of the property, as the ten-year period is based on the date of build completion of the property. For example, if at the time of completion of the RtSO sale your home is five years old, therefore you will only have a five year repair and maintenance period under the Lease. The new Building Regulations Completion Certificate which will be provided as part of the legal pack will confirm the date your home was built. If your home is older than ten years, then reference to the ten-year repair period will be removed from the Lease.