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Our employees at Legal & General Affordable Homes are not financially trained or regulated to discuss your personal affordability, tax or pensions etc in detail. However, we partner with a network of mortgage brokers who would be more than happy to help you understand your affordability. If you would like us to put you in touch with them, then please speak to one of our Sales Consultants.

Shared Ownership allows you to buy a portion of a property generally between 25% and 75%, although sometimes as little as 10% of the full market value. This is quite a big range, so you’ll need to think about is what percentage is affordable to you and what deposit you have available, or you’ll realistically be able to save.

We encourage our customers to buy the biggest share that they can afford, but generally we recommend between 25% and 45% of a person’s monthly household income should be go towards the cost of housing. We recommend talking to your mortgage broker to understand more about your affordability.

Please speak to one of our Sales Consultants who can put you in touch.

Credit History

The better your credit history, the better position you will be in when it comes to buying your Shared Ownership home. To help you understand some of the key factors determining your credit history, the following statements must be true:

• I have not been declared bankrupt within the last 6 years.
• I do not have an unsatisfied County Court Judgement (CCJ) registered against my name.
• I am not in arrears with any tenancy payments or mortgage repayments.
• I do not have any active Individual Voluntary Credit Agreements in place.
• I have not had a home repossessed in the last 5 years.

If the above statements are true and your credit history is not as good as it could be then consider the following factors that might be affecting your credit history:

• History of late or missed payments. 
• Going over your credit limit.
• Defaulting on credit agreements.
• Making too many credit applications in a short space of time.
• Joint accounts with someone with a bad credit record.
• Frequent cash withdrawals on your credit card.
• Errors or fraudulent activity on your credit report that’s not been detected.
• Not being on the electoral roll.

For impartial advice relating to debt or money concerns, contact your local Citizen Advice Bureau or visit; www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/help-with-debt/

Legal and General Affordable Homes will have appointed a Management Provider to manage your property on our behalf, they will be in touch with more information nearer the time of completion.

They will collect service charges and oversee the management and maintenance of the building and any communal areas on our behalf.

Service charges are fees that leaseholders pay to cover their share of the cost of maintaining the building they live in.  Estate management charges cover the cost to upkeep the external landscaped areas and roads that are not adopted by the local authority.

For Apartments and Coach Houses: Service charges usually cover the costs of repairs to shared areas and the outside of the building, such as roof, external pipes and drains. It also covers cleaning and buildings insurance.

For Houses: Most houses will be part of a development where all properties contribute to an estate management charge.  This will include buildings insurance whilst you are a Shared Owner.

Your sales consultant will provide you with the costs for the above services and your solicitor will be provided with the  breakdown of what the costs cover. Ground Rent is not generally applicable on homes following recent legislation changes, but your legal representative will confirm this in relation to any property you are looking to purchase.

You cannot grant an assured short hold tenancy on a Shared Ownership property. If you want to get a lodger you can, however you need to be able to afford to purchase the home without any assistance.