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Selling your home

Buy Back Programme

If you own a former council property and are considering selling, our Buy Back Programme allows you to sell your home back to the council. Making selling your home simpler.

Selling within five years of the Right to Buy purchase

If you bought your home as one of our tenants under the Right to Buy scheme, and you sell within five years, you must repay some or all of the discount we gave you.

This will be worked out as a percentage of the price for which you are selling your property.

There are some exceptions to repayment of the discount. For example where the property is compulsory purchased or transferred to you as part of a divorce settlement.

If you're looking to re-mortgage within the first five years of your right to buy purchase, you may also need to request a postponement of the charge we have registered with the land registry against your property to protect the discount.

If you are not sure if this applies to you or would like confirmation of this please email us leaseholder.services@towerhamlets.gov.uk

Get a management pack

As a leaseholder, you can sell your property at any time. You will need to make all the arrangements yourself with estate agents and solicitors. We do not allow estate agent boards to be fixed to our blocks, property or estates.

Your solicitor must notify us when you have accepted an offer on your property. They should ask us for information relating to your accounts and property to assist with completing the sale.

We call this a management pack and it is sometimes referred to as a resale pack or an LPE1. We will only provide it to your solicitor, not the buyer or their solicitor.

We charge £350 for this service. We put together information about:

  • accounts
  • outstanding charges
  • a schedule of planned maintenance and major works
  • insurance policy details

We aim to get the information and issue packs within 15 working days.

If there is an estimated charge for services or for major works in progress, you must agree with the buyer on how to pay any future bills. This is for those you are awaiting a final account for.

The buyer's solicitor may want you to settle these in full. They may also want to agree on an amount to withhold from the purchase price for these future bills.

This amount is known as a “retention” and is held by your solicitor until the final account is known.

Notify us about change in ownership

When you sell your home and the sale is complete, the new leaseholder or their solicitor must notify us. We need to register the assignment of the lease and record the mortgage provider's details.

There will be a small charge for registering a Notice of Transfer.

Extending your lease

Before starting the lease extension process, we strongly recommend that you get independent legal advice. You may also find the guidance provided by LEASE (The Leasehold Advisory Service), the government-funded organisation that offers free and impartial advice on leasehold matters, helpful.

For moreinformation, including access to a lease extension calculator, visit:

Lease Extension: Getting Started

Eligibility and key Information

To apply for a statutory lease extension, the following conditions apply:

  • The property must be held under a long lease, originally granted for a term of more than 21 years.
  • A formal Section 42 Notice must be served on the landlord by your solicitor. We do not accept informal requests.
  • If your lease has less than 80 years remaining, extra costs may apply as part of the lease extension premium.
  • The cost of the lease extension premium can only be determined after a professional valuation has been carried out.
  • If granted, the lease extension will add 90 years to the existing unexpired lease term.
  • Upon completion of the lease extension, the ground rent will be reduced to a peppercorn rent (nil payable).

Fees and premium

The following fees are payable when applying for a lease extension:

  • London Borough of Tower Hamlets (LBTH) legal fee. This does not include any fees the leaseholder may incur from their own legal representative.
  • Valuation fee.
  • Premium. A premium is payable to the Council, the exact amount of which will be determined following the surveyor's valuation.

Fees and charges are reviewed periodically and may be subject to change. Applicants should contact us to confirm the current fees and charges before submitting a lease extension application.

Contact

Telephone: 020 7364 5015
Request a service online