more stress over my shared ownership nightmare. need to let off some steam

[totalmisfit]

i started a thread about a month back about how we're between a rock and a hard place with our shared ownership flat, and trying to sell it. We have to move by the middle of august as dp starts his new job at the end of that month. Our housing association own 60% of the flat and are the biggest bunch of lazy tossers i've ever encountered. They're forever stalling with putting the house on the market. I can't believe it's taken nearly a month from when we told them we were selling it to even get to the stage where they're about to put it on the market. Whenever i speak to them all i get is a stuck record about 'the credit crunch' which is jsut the perfect excuse for them to take our money and sit on their collective backsides for 8 weeks. So they've basically said 'it probably won't sell' and no way can we sublet because it says so in our lease. There is no way on earth we can afford to pay rent and mortgage here and also rent 100 miles away. I know when i posted about this last time lots of people said 'just sublet it anyway' but i'm worried that will make things 100x worse as we won't have any of the security or peace of mind we would have had if we'd been able to rent it out with their consent.

So today i was told 'write so and so a letter explaining your situation but it won't change anything because we go by what is written in your lease.' FECKERS!!!! what's the point of that, then? Do they really think i have the time or energy to do something so pointless?

i really really hate them. They're supposed to be social housing but they don't give two shits about people bankrupting themselves because of their awful policies, or the fact that people who would potentially love to rent out our flat will be kept from doing so, while it stands pointlessly empty and we bleed ourselves dry financially

I don't know if this would work but, as a housing assn they must have a waiting list of tenants - cd you suggest renting to one of them?

ok. you need t askor a formal complaints form.

you need to find out whether you can market your flat with other people - i don't reallyknow mch about these things but i have no reason to think that you cant go to local estate agents and get it n te markt.

you need to formally complain. you are probabl dealing with someone who doesnt' give a shit - is Friday ffs - they aren' eally there in spirit ayway.

ring back immediatley and say you are completely unhappy about the way in which you have been treated on a customer service level and you wish to be send a formal complaints form - and please can i have your name and formal job title.

make sure it is on a customer service level - and not a out the lease thing - becuase if its in your lease not to sub let -that issue is not going to change.

I empathise, we moved out of shared ownership to full ownership and boy, did the company in question drag their heels. We had to wait 4 weeks until we were free to go on the open market, except they conveniently delayed processing/acknowledging paperwork so it ended up being 5.5 weeks. We ended up notifying them that we were free to market through an estate agent!!!

When our solicitor received a bill for an oustanding balance of something in the region of £1.50, well, you can guess what he, and we, thought.... Can you tell it's a subject that still riles me? And having to pay for them to answer our buyer's solicitor's questions (nearly £120 a pop, I mean ).

Now is the time to spend some £ - everything that has to be posted to them - send by recorded delivery, send emails, ring and keep a note of when you did, who you spoke to, use your solicitor to pressure, use everyone in the chain to pressure, basically become a nice PITA until they do start responding more promptly.

Definitely put in a formal complaint. Also see if there is some kind of ombudsman to whom you can complain as well.

Good luck, kick their butts!

which housing association is it? They should also have something in your lease along the lines of: if they can't sell it to a social housing buyer within x months you are free to try to sell it on the open market. Depending on where you are that might be much better (HAs tend to undervalue) Also, you should be able to sublet. Again, check your lease. Something such as...if your personal or employment circumstances make it impossible for you to remain in the flat, you are permitted to sublet so long as you notify the HA. So if it was 2 bedrooms and you had 5 kids, or if it was in Kettering and you worked in Hull...
Don't get cross. Talk to Shelter or similar.

I don't know how much of a deposit you put down on this flat but my friend was in a situation 8 years ago when she split up with her boyfriend and basically she posted back the keys.
It was better to loose the £5k deposit than as you say bankrupt yourself trying to keep the 2 properties maintained and if you break the lease ie sublet they will be within their rights to repossess the property anyway.

Oh and they tried to pursue her for the money, never chased the boyfriend but they didn't get a penny and they never took her to court so it didn't affect her credit rating.