Right to Buy and Right to Acquire

Right to Acquire

Right to Acquire is a scheme which allows eligible residents of Housing Solutions to acquire their current home with at a fixed discount; tenants will need to have a qualifying tenancy, and must live in a property that was purchased or built using some government funding.

If you think that you may qualify for the Preserved Right to Buy please contact our Customer Contact Centre – we can carry out some basic checks to see whether you might qualify, but our final decision will only be made once we have reviewed your full application.

How to exercise your right to acquire

To exercise your right to buy you will need to submit a Notice Claiming the Right to Acquire (an RtA1 Form), and we’ll arrange an interview with you so that we can get copies of supporting documents and you can ask any other questions you may have. We’ll then review your application and let you know whether or not you qualify.

If you qualify, we’ll arrange to have your home valued and use the information in your application to calculate any discount you qualify for to issue you with an Offer Notice. If you then choose to accept the offer we will instruct our solicitors to work with your solicitor to transfer the property to you. You’ll have 12 weeks from the date we issue the Offer Notice to accept the offer, and 3 months from the date you accept the offer to complete the acquisition.

You can find out more information about the Right to Acquire on the gov.uk Right to Acquire website.

Right to Buy

Right to Buy is a scheme which allows residents of local authority housing, who hold a valid tenancy and meet the minimum statutory period of occupancy, to purchase their home with a discount. Whilst Housing Solutions cannot issue a tenancy with a right to buy, residents of properties that were previously owned by a local authority may be able to claim a Preserved Right to Buy – to do this, the tenant must have held a tenancy with the local authority before the date of transfer, so before May 1995.

There are certain properties which are exempt from the Right to Buy, such as those designated for older people, adapted properties, and those identified for demolition.

Applicants exercising their right to buy can claim a discount against the purchase price, based on the number of years they have held a valid tenancy, up to a maximum cap depending on the region that the property is based in.

How to exercise your right to buy

To exercise your right to buy you will need to submit a Notice Claiming the Right to Buy (an RtB1 Form), and we’ll arrange an interview with you so that we can get copies of supporting documents and you can ask any other questions you may have. We’ll then review your application and let you know whether or not you qualify.

You can find out more information about the Right to Acquire on the gov.uk Right to Buy website.

Repairs and improvements during the right to buy and right to acquire process

Once we have accepted your application for the right to buy we are only obliged to undertake urgent repairs to your home.

Can I add people who are not on the tenancy to my application

At least one of the applicants to buy must be a qualifying tenant and named on the tenancy, but other residents in the property can also join the application and be included in the right to acquire/buy.