Do-It-Yourself Shared Ownership Scheme for Solihull

Do-It-Yourself Shared Ownership (DIYSO) is a part buy, part rent scheme designed to help people get on the housing ladder. It is very similar to other shared ownership schemes except for one key element. Under most shared ownership schemes the buyers usually choose a home provided by Solihull Community Housing or a housing association.

With DIYSO buyers can choose a home on the open market giving far more choice of a property to buy. DIYSO allows you to buy a share in a home of your choice and pay an affordable rent on the part you don’t own. 

Who is eligible to apply?

Solihull Council tenants

Am I eligible?

• Your household income should be less than £50,000
• You must be able to fund a 10% deposit of the share you purchase
• Have a mortgage and savings to fund at least 35% of the purchase price

All applicants will have a financial assessment.

How do I apply?

In the first instance you will need to fill in an Expression of Interest Form and return it to Solihull Community Housing. They will then carry out some initial checks and contact you to let you know if you can apply or not.

Once they have your application, an Independent Financial Advisor will assess whether you can buy a home and invite you to come to an interview to make sure you can afford and fully understand all the costs of owning a home.

If your application is approved, you will be sent an offer to take part in the scheme. The offer will set out the price guidelines of the property you can afford to choose on the open market and the share you will be expected to buy.

Please note that the share percentage and the price of the property you can buy is linked to your income and is subject to a financial approval from an Independent Financial Advisor (IFA).

You can now begin your search for your home!

You buy a share, between 35% and 75%, and pay rent on the part that you do not own. You will need to get a mortgage or have personal savings for the share of the property you are buying.

What can I buy?

You can look at properties for sale on the open market, but there are some important rules:

• It must be ‘freehold’ in the Solihull Council area
• The purchase price cannot be above £250,000
• The property cannot be a new build or less than 12 months old
• It cannot have attracted any previous government grant funding for shared ownership
• The property must be in good mortgagable condition, confirmed by a satisfactory Homebuyers report and must not be of a size that would make the household statutorily overcrowded.

Solihull Community Housing will have the right to reject a property under the Scheme if there are any specific concerns relating to longer term asset value.

Once you have found a property you would like to buy under the DIYSO scheme please contact Solihull Community Housing on the details at the bottom of this blog.

Subject to the property meeting the terms and conditions of the scheme Solihull Community Housing will check that the price is correct and will ask you to arrange a full structural survey by an independent surveyor.

The purchase of the property will be subject to a satisfactory survey. Once the purchase of the property has been agreed and they have a satisfactory survey, Solihull Community Housing will purchase the property and then sell to you the agreed percentage of the property.

Mortgage repayments

Your monthly mortgage repayments will depend on the size of your mortgage and interest rates.

You will pay rent on the share of the property you do not own. The rent is charged at 2.49% of unsold equity. Solihull Community Housing will review rents each year.

Repairs 

You will be responsible for the upkeep of your property, both inside and outside. Although initially the property is not owned outright by you, you will have all the normal responsibilities of a full owner. This means for example that you will be obliged to pay 100% of the outgoings relating to the property and you will have full responsibility for repairing and maintaining your property in the same way as if you owned the property outright.

Buying more shares in your home (‘Staircasing’) 

When you increase your share in the property you must buy a minimum of 10 per cent each time.

As you buy further shares the rent will be reduced proportionately.

The value of any additional shares you buy is based on the market value of the property at the time. When you have staircased to 100% the lease agreement between Solihull Community Housing will no longer exist and they will transfer the freehold title to you.

Making changes to the property

You must get written confirmation from Solihull Community Housing before you carry out any work. You may also need to get approval from your mortgage lender, as well as any legal/ planning permission you need.

What if I decide to sell?

Solihull Community Housing will help sell your share. They have an exclusive option on the sale of the property and will seek to find a buyer within six weeks of the property coming onto the market.

After the six-week period, if the property remains unsold, you will be free to sell your share of the property on the open market.

If you do not keep up your rent and mortgage repayments, your home could be at risk.

For more information, please get in touch with Solihull Community Housing on:

Solihull Community Housing

Endeavour House

Meriden Drive

Solihull

B37 6BX

Phone: 0121 717 1515

Typetalk: 18001 0121 717 1515

Text: 07781 474 722

Email: info@solihullcommunityhousing.org.uk

Website: www.solihullcommunityhousing.org.uk