Purchasing freehold - advice please

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Hello,

Myself and my husband live in a Shared Ownership house - we are looking at staircasing and buying the property in full including the freehold.

We currently have a mortgage on the part we own. We want to pay this off, and purchase the house and freehold (I recently received an inheritance completely out of the blue, we don’t come from money so feeling a lot of feelings, especially in the current climate, I know we’re very fortunate.)

I was hoping to see if anyone who had purchased a Shared Ownership property had any advice and words of wisdom to share?

We’re trying to find an experienced solicitor at the moment.

And are we mad to pay off the mortgage now, in advance of the purchase going though? Or wait and do it at the same time?

I think pay it off ASAP, but for some reason I’m sceptical - possibly because it all has come out of the blue so feel it might equally be taken away from us as quickly.

Any advice really appreciated.

Speak to an independent mortgage broker. Sometimes the ‘most obvious’ answer eg pay of the mortgage, isn’t always the best financial option. An IFA will be best placed to ask you the right questions to determine which options suit your circumstances now and for the future far better and determine risk factors !

I’m not in your position yet but I am in S/O and know I can staircase to 100%. I was told by my solicitor that once I’d paid for it in full I still had to apply for the FH. It doesn’t happen automatically but you apply and it is free. Not sure if that applies to all though. I drilled it into my teenage son that if it went to him and he staircased he must apply for the freehold (still free!) Otherwise at the end of the leasing period it would go back to the leaseholder! Bear in mind you may still have to pay service charges for the development. But yes I would definitely buy mine if I had the cash! Remember that that the unowned part will increase in value so best to buy now rather than later I’d say! It would only go one way!

Thanks for your message, great idea, I spoke to our IFA and he recommended buying the house. Because it’s shared ownership though I’m not 100% sure of the risks, I was hoping someone on here might know more!

Thank you @Dontfuckingsaycheese (great name by the way). That’s really good to hear, it sounds like we’re in similar SO places, it’s such a complicated minefield isn’t it. I didn’t realise if you don’t apply for the freehold it goes back to the leaseholder when it runs out! Good to know.
We have to continue to pay the service charge, so a bit concerned if we want to sell in the future that might put buyers off. Thanks for your help.

I think our service charge is relatively minimal - a £20 pcm payment for maintaining shared areas on our little development of 40-odd houses. Namely visitor parking and a gated residents only grassy space. This sounds grander than it actually is. We were told we’d have keys which made it sound wonderfully exclusive. In reality no lock or keys materialised so we bought our own padlock and shared the combination! It’s next to a road so not good for the little ones throwing balls around as they fly over the fence. No good for me to give my tiny terrier an off lead scamper as he’d be able to get under the fence!