Our shared ownership dream home turned into a disaster

Special needs teacher Andrew Howard, 29, and his partner purchased a 40 per cent share of a new flat in Leytonstone from Newlon Housing Trust less than two years ago.

When he was offered a new job in Norfolk he thought it would be a straightforward process to sell the property and relocate.

But their experience of ownership and trying to sell has left the couple, who have a two-year-old daughter, in despair.

Mr Howard paid £79,000 for his share of the £195,000 two-bedroom flat, which carried a monthly rent and service charge of £347 until it shot up to £433 in April.

The couple's problems began shortly after they moved in. They included:

Rubbish not collected for five weeks because of poor access to the bin sheds.

A lift out of service for 11 days.

A broken front door which had no handle and remained unsecured for nearly two weeks.

Mr Howard said: "We could not do any repairs ourselves because we were mostly tenants. When we complained, Newlon were invariably rude and unhelpful and treated us as though we were the problem."

Things became much worse when they asked about selling their share of the flat, thinking the trust would buy it.

"When we suggested this, Newlon refused point blank, claiming they had no money to do so," said Mr Howard.

He made a formal application to sell in April but discovered that under the terms of the lease he had to give the trust first option and up to eight weeks to resell the property, for which it would claim an agent's fee of 0.75 per cent.

Mr Howard had the flat cleaned and painted ready for viewings but heard nothing from Newlon for two weeks.

The couple were then contacted by valuers, to whom they were asked to pay £300 in addition to paying Newlon's £400 legal costs and for a home information pack.

By early June the trust had still not put the flat on the market and told Mr Howard the eight-week period when it had sole agency rights would only begin when it appeared on a website marketing shared ownership homes. Newlon also said it had a list of interested buyers but these never materialised, claimed Mr Howard. He added: "In July, after many fraught phone conversations, Newlon finally allowed us to use our own estate agents, who at least tried to market the flat properly. "But by then the market had gone flat and the holiday season had started."

The final blow came this week, when Newlon assistant director Sunita Parbhaka told Mr Howard she wanted to contact their mortgage lenders, Nationwide, to "find a way to help you".

According to Mr Howard, she said she wanted to discuss repossession of the flat even though the couple had never been in arrears. Mr Howard said: "I am appalled a charity which is meant to help people like us would want to force us into repossession and extract money from us at every turn."

He now considers shared ownership, the flagship of Labour and Tory affordable housing policies, a "scam". He said: "With shared ownership you have 100 per cent liability and zero per cent rights."

A Newlon spokesman said it had tried to help the couple. He added: "We have not failed in our obligations to the owners of the flat, nor have we threatened them with repossession. We sympathise with people finding it hard to sell their homes in the current housing market."

HOW THE HOUSING SCHEME WORKS

Shared ownership was devised as a way of getting people with relatively limited equity on to the housing ladder.

The occupant buys a percentage of a property - it must be a minimum of 25 per cent.

The housing association or trust continues to own the rest of the property and the occupant pays rent to the association.

The occupant also pays service charges for maintenance.

The resident is not allowed to carry out maintenance themselves - the housing association is responsible for doing it.