Council to buy back properties (From Bury Times)

Council to buy back properties

8:30am Thursday 26th March 2009 in Search Module

BURY’S social housing stock could be given a significant boost.

For the local authority has developed a new policy for the process of buying back properties originally purchased under the right to buy scheme.

The move by Bury Council comes four years after legislative changes to right to buy.

Anyone who received their offer notice for right to buy from January 2005, and wants to sell such a property within the first 10 years of purchase, must give first right of refusal to their former landlord.

The Housing Act 1985 gave social housing tenants with secure tenancies the right to buy their home from their landlord at a discount to the market value. The level of the discount depended on the amount of time an individual had been a tenant in a council home.

Tenants who bought their homes under right to buy can sell them. But the ‘right of first refusal’ rule gives the council the option to buy the property.

A report to last week’s council executive stated: “We will decide whether to buy a property back, based on whether it would be beneficial to the council and will consider the individual circumstances of the homeowner who is trying to sell the property.

“The council can consider buy back if there would be benefits to the community we serve or benefits to the individual homeowner who is trying to sell the property.”

The executive approved the new buy back policy.

Councillor Ian Gartside, executive member for learning, skills and employment, said: “This will allow us to bring back significant properties back into social housing.”