Leasehold Schemes for People Over 55
Tees Valley Housing currently operates two schemes designed specifically for people over 55 who can live independently.
For both schemes, applicants must be 55 or older (in the case of a joint application, only one partner has to be 55 or over).
Each property is subject to a lease, which describes how the property is managed, the services that Tees Valley Housing provides, the roles and responsibilities of the leaseholder and Tees Valley Housing and the resale procedure.
A monthly service charge towards the day to day running costs of the scheme must be paid. The services provided will vary from scheme to scheme but generally will include:
- Buildings insurance
- Grounds maintenance
- Heating and lighting of communal areas
- Maintenance of shared hallways, corridors or staircases.
- Sinking fund (a fund to offset the cost of future major repair work)
Leasehold Scheme for the Elderly (LSE)
Under this scheme, you can buy the property for either 70% or 75% of the market value and the remaining share is kept by Tees Halley Housing to ensure that the property remains affordable and can only be sold on to people that qualify for the scheme.
This scheme is ideal if you are aged 55 or over and you are retired or reaching retirement age and your home is becoming a burden, either physically or financially. If you currently own a home, you will need to show that selling your current property would not give you enough money to buy a suitable home outright.
The scheme is not available to investors or to people who do not intend to live in the property as their only or main home.
Shared Ownership for the Elderly (SOE)
This scheme works in a similar way to the LSE scheme. You can buy a 99 year lease but may pay either 50% or 75% of the market value.
If you choose to buy an initial share of 50%, the lease will allow you to buy a further 25% at a later date. An affordable monthly rent will be payable on this 25% share until you buy own 75%.
If you can buy 75% immediately, you do not need to pay any rent.
As with the LSE scheme, TVH will own the remaining share.
Eligibility
Before making an assessment of housing need, Tees Valley Housing takes all the following into consideration:
- Your existing housing conditions and the length of time you have been in this position.
- Your ability to cope with these conditions.
- Your ability to purchase and meet outgoings without hardship.
- Your ability to purchase outright a similar property.
Procedure
Application forms are available on request from TVH and must be returned to our office. We will then consider your application for the waiting list. When a property becomes available, we will make arrangements to visit you in your home and make an assessment of your housing need based on the eligibility criteria.
We will write to you within ten days to let you know if you can buy the property under the scheme. If you are not successful we will keep your application on the waiting list for future properties.
If we are unable to accept you onto the waiting list we will write to you, giving the reason. However if your circumstances change in any way, we will consider a new application. Please note it is not our policy to acknowledge receipt of application forms
Confidentiality
Any information
provided by you to TVH about your
application will be dealt with
in confidence and will made available
to you on request. If there are
any changes in your circumstances
please contact TVHL immediately as
it may affect your application.
Right to Appeal
If you are unhappy with any decision made regarding your application, you may appeal to Tees Valley Housing.
Further Information
For more information, please click on this link:
