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aggi
@bq
I echo many of the SO experiences described above.
Housing associations are staffed by people who are too useless even to work for local authorities.
It's important to remember in any dealings with them that they are exclusively in the business of building blocks of flats and trousering government cash to fill them with social tenants. Once they have done that they don't give a shit.
When not overcharging (it was maintenance for non-existent lifts in our place) or handing out contracts to companies who overcharge they are hopeless to the point of neglect with the maintenance and repair, dealing with complaints, or even leaving tenants to the quiet enjoyment of their homes. Ours regularly threatened to remove our bikes, and once my car, despite the fact my parking space was demised to me.
Shared ownership isn't really ownership. It's renting with the upfront purchase of an option to buy outright. You can lose your half and theirs if you don't pay your rent. As such you have a limited choice of mortgage products, and are usually restricted to expensive and non-fixed mortgages. You cannot remortgage unless you own 100%.
When you come to extend your lease, staircase, or sell your flat (or as I unwisely did, all 3 at once) you will find the housing association useless because they are simply not geared up to do it. Leaving aside their 6 month option to sell to a shared ownership tenant (try and get out of this if you can), it rarely happens. You have to push and push and push. I was reduced on the day of exchange to refusing to get off the phone with the woman from the HA until she had done all the paperwork, I had received all the emails and I was satisfied I could actually exchange with my buyer. Oh, and their legal and valuation fees? You're paying all of those too, despite the fact their lawyers are in-house.
Don't believe any guff about getting to keep the full uplift in value of any improvements that you have done (e.g. new kitchen or bathroom). This is a lie, and there is no way they are not taking their half.
Despite all that it worked for me. I made a very large profit when I sold it, although I did have to live in Cambridge Heath for 19 years to do so, so not all gravy! A lot of that was due to buying in 1999, before Bethnal Green was fashionable, and selling just before the Brexit vote.
If I were doing it again I would staircase to 100% as early and as fast as I could, rather than leaving it till the day I sold it. I would have made over £100k more profit when I sold, paid a lot less in mortgage payments over the years, had a better lease and been able to sublet.