Shared ownership property is causing me to pull my hair out

[Trufflebutter24]

Living in a 2 bed flat in Herts. Been trying to sell for 9-10 months. Price is fixed by a rics surveyor, it’s hard to negotiate on this.

We’re in a converted office block and our windows in the bedroom face into the atrium and don’t open.

Neighbour and good friend whose flat is similar layout has had 6 buyer mortgages fall through. Firstly relating to EWS1, they were fixed. Now challenges based on internal windows, apparently mortgage providers are not willing to lend on these properties, due to borrowed light.

our mortgage is variable at the moment. Over 7%, paying around 1300 pm, on top we have rent. DH is working 6 days a week to keep us afloat, I’m PT atm.

The last survey for my friend’s property resulted in a nil mortgage, which I appreciate isn’t the end of the world, but based on the lender’s criteria.

We are desperate to get out. I’ve tried contacting the housing association who have said there’s no problem with selling the properties and confidence is higher this year with rates coming down. We don’t know what to do, if we fix our mortgage we have the early exit fee to contend with if we do sell. Interest only saves us 175 per month.

The bank have pointed me to the Leasehold advisory group, not sure if they can help but worth a try.

Just wondered if anyone has any experience/advice. I’m feeling so low about this all.

Bumping in the hope someone will come back! 😂

No experience of this but was wondering if you could get a solicitor to argue that there is an issue here, based on mortgage companies refusing to lend.
Or could the housing association buy your share and resell it to someone who was in your position and needs a shared ownership property?

Thank you for replying. I’m thinking solicitor too, but saying that, I’m not confident enough yet to go down this route.

housing association won’t do a buy back, it’s there policy… conveniently!!

Can you ask your lender to do a product transfer onto a better interest rate but without an early exit fee? We did this when we were struggling to sell. No advice otherwise sorry, apart from that shared ownership is the biggest scam going, had so many friends who've had problems.

I think you do need professional advice tbh. Some shared ownership schemes can be really iffy.
I had a shared ownership house in the past and I sold it to someone who also needed shared ownership - the HA put me touch with them and so I was able to avoid estate agents fees etc. Maybe your HA could help you out with that, but obviously that only works if the property is mortgageable. I would think you'd have some comeback if they've sold you a house that no one can now get a mortgage on.

Go to your MP. The conversion of office buildings is creating all sorts of problems. This must be so unbelievably stressful for you and I am sorry. Get as much as you can about the mortgageability of your property in writing from as many brokers as possible and send it to your housing assoc with MP copied in.

Thank you for your comments. It is incredibly stressful and incredibly frustrating. I’ve contacted the surveyor who gave the neighbouring the nil valuation but she has not come back to me. I don’t think she has to either - so I’m not sure where else to go.

re product transfer, we are likely (if we sell) going to be in negative equity or just break even, we have no savings so will likely private rent. I know lots are against this but we pay 1700 per month for our tiny flat, we could get a 3 bed house for the same amount.

Apologies as this is a but old now, can I ask if you ever managed to sell?