Right to Buy and Right to Acquire

Right to Buy (RTB) or Right to Acquire (RTA) are government-funded schemes that enable customers who rent their homes to buy them from us at a discount.

Right to Buy

The Preserved Right to Buy scheme is available to customers who held secure tenancies with Chelmsford Borough Council, which were transferred to us when we took ownership in March 2002.

If you’ve remained a customer since this date, you may be eligible for this scheme. If you’re eligible, you’ll receive a discount off the market value of your home, depending on your length of tenancy. 

The Preserved Right to Buy is lost if you move to a property owned by another housing association. or when your tenancy is terminated, or when you move to a property in the private sector. The Preserved Right to Buy operates in a similar way to the normal Right to Buy.

Following the Government’s review of Right to Buy discounts, the maximum discount for the South East region is £38,000 or 70% percent of the property value, whichever is less. 

Example

If you live in a three-bedroom house in Chelmsford valued at £350,000 and you qualify to receive the maximum discount of £38,000, you’d pay £312,000 for your home.

To find out if you’re eligible for Right to Buy, where you can get more advice, and how to apply, take a look at our guide to the Preserved Right to Buy. You can also find more information in the Government’s guide Your right to buy your home.

 

Right to Acquire

The Right to Acquire scheme allows housing association customers to buy their current home at a discount. You can apply to buy your home if you’ve held an assured tenancy with us, in your own name, for three years or more. 

Discounts for this scheme are set by the Government and are between £9,000 and £16, 000 depending on where you live.

Example

If you live in a three-bedroom house in Chelmsford valued at £350,000 and you qualify to receive the maximum discount of £16,000, you’d pay £334,000 for your home.

You can visit the GOV.UK website to find out the discounts in your area. Your discount might be reduced if you’ve used Right to Acquire or Right to Buy before.

To check your eligibility, find out where to get more advice and where to apply, read our guide to the Right to Acquire.

If you feel that Right to Acquire isn’t for you, for example, if you can't afford to buy your home with the discount, you might want to consider shared ownership. This allows you to own part of a home until you can afford to buy more of it.

Right to Shared Ownership

This is a new government-funded scheme that allows some customers to buy their property under the Shared Ownership scheme. You can buy from as little as 10% or as much as 75% of the full market value of your home and pay a subsidised rent to us on the remaining share. Whether this is an option for you will depend on what rules were in place at the time your home was funded or planning permission was granted.

To qualify, you must:

  • live in a home where the Right to Shared Ownership applies;

  • hold an assured tenancy;

  • have been a tenant of social housing for a minimum of three years;

  • meet the shared ownership eligibility requirements;

  • not own another property.