Council Right to Buy UK

COUNCIL RIGHT TO BUY: Your Right to Buy your home

Council Right to Buy: Qualifying period for Right to Buy

Subject to these maximum limits, the amount of discount for which you are eligible depends on the time you have spent as a public sector tenant, with:

• your present landlord;
• another ‘Right to Buy landlord’;
• any of the public bodies listed.

If you must have spent 2 years as a public sector tenant in order to qualify for the Right to Buy (see pages 7 and 8 to see if that applies to you), the discount available to you after two years is 32% for houses and 44% for flats. If you are buying a house, you are eligible for 1% more discount for each extra year, up to a maximum limit of 60%. If you are buying a flat, you are eligible for 2% more discount for each extra full year, up to a maximum limit of 70%. But, whatever percentage you are eligible for, your discount cannot be greater than the maximum discount for the area in which you live, listed above.

If you must have spent 5 years as a public sector tenant in order to qualify for the Right to Buy, the discount available to you after 5 years is 35% for houses and 50% for flats. If you are buying a house, you are eligible for 1% more discount for each extra year, up to a maximum limit of 60%. If you are buying a flat, you are eligible for 2% more discount for each extra full year, up to a maximum limit of 70%. But, whatever percentage you are eligible for, your discount cannot be greater than the maximum discount for the area in which you live.

The qualifying period for discount can include time spent in different homes and with different landlords. This doesn’t have to be continuous, so long as it was a public sector tenancy. You may also be able to count a period when your husband or wife was a public sector tenant or lived in housing provided by the armed forces. If you lived with your parents after the age of 16 and you later became the tenant of the same house or flat, you may be able to count that time too.

If you are buying jointly with someone who has a qualifying period longer than yours, you will get their higher rate of discount (subject to the maximum limit for your area).

The table below gives some examples of the discount you could receive on a home worth £75,000. But you should note that you may not get the full amount of discount shown in the table because of the cash limits.

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© Crown Copyright (Correct at time of writing January 2005. Please check with your financial services provider for any changes.)

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