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Your Right to Acquire application

To start the process, ask your landlord for the Right to Acquire claim form (RTA1). You can also download the form from the link below.

Complete and return the RTA1 form to your landlord - it’s an important document and you should keep a copy for yourself.

Your landlord will reply telling you if you can buy your home through the Right to Acquire scheme. They have four weeks to reply - or eight weeks if they need to check the time you’ve been a housing association tenant with another landlord.

If your landlord says no, they must say why you can’t buy your home through Right to Acquire. You can’t appeal against the landlord’s decision.

• Download Form RTA1: Right to Acquire application form (PDF, 552K)

• Download Form RTA2: landlord's reply to your Right to Acquire application (PDF, 164K)

• Help with PDF files

If you qualify for Right to Acquire

If your landlord tells you that you qualify for the scheme, they may offer you the choice of:

• buying your existing home
  
• buying another empty property that they own

If the alternative property is in another area, you may get a different discount. You don’t have to accept the alternative property and your landlord doesn’t have to offer you one.

• Download Discounts by location – the Right to Acquire scheme (PDF, 89K)

• Help with PDF files

Your Right to Acquire offer notice

The landlord will send you an offer notice (RTA3) within:

• eight weeks if your home is a house and you are buying it freehold
  
• 12 weeks if your home is a leasehold flat or maisonette

If you buy a freehold property, you will own the building and the land it is built on.

Normally flats (and maisonettes) are sold on a leasehold basis. If you buy a leasehold property, you own the home for a fixed period of time, eg 125 years, but not the land it is built on.

The offer notice will include:

• the price the landlord thinks you should pay for the property and how this has been worked out
  
• your discount and how it has been worked out
  
• a description of the property and any land included in the price
  
• terms and conditions of the sale
  
• estimates of any ‘service charges’ for a flat or maisonette for the first five years (this is a yearly cost towards repairs and the upkeep of the building)
  
• any known problems with the structure of your home, eg subsidence

• Download Form RTA3: Right to Acquire offer notice (PDF, 282K)

• Help with PDF files

If you disagree with the valuation of your home

If you disagree with the price given for your home, you can ask your landlord for an independent valuation by the district valuer. You must ask for this valuation within three months of getting the landlord’s offer notice.

The district valuer’s decision is final – even if they say you should pay more for your home than your landlord’s original valuation.

• Download Form RTA4: revised Right to Acquire offer notice following an appeal to the district valuer (PDF, 320K)

• Help with PDF files

Deciding to buy your home through Right to Acquire

You must decide if you want to go ahead with buying the property within three months of receiving the offer notice. You do this using a ‘Tenant’s Notice of Intention’ which your landlord will have sent you.

If you change your mind about buying your home, you can pull out of the sale and continue to rent your home.

Mortgages and legal advice for your Right to Acquire home

Once you are happy with your landlord’s terms, the next step is usually to borrow money through a mortgage so you can buy your home.

If you are on a low income, you may have a problem getting a mortgage. It is a good idea to get independent financial advice when buying any property.

Once you have arranged your finances, your solicitor deals with the legal part of buying your property. This is known as ‘conveyancing’. Your landlord will get the details of your mortgage offer and, once checked, the purchase can go ahead.

• Mortgages (money, tax and benefits section)

• Planning for buying a home (money, tax and benefits section)

• Conveyancing for buyers - legal advice for buying a home

Completing the purchase of your Right to Acquire home

You should try to complete the process of buying your home within three months of getting the offer notice from the landlord. If you don’t, your landlord may serve a first notice (RTA5). This gives you a reasonable time to complete your purchase (no less than 56 days).

If you haven’t bought your home within this time, your landlord can serve a second ‘final notice’ (RTA6). This will give you a further reasonable period (no less than 56 days) to complete the purchase of your home.

If you don’t complete within the time given in the final notice, your landlord may think you have withdrawn your application.

Contact your landlord if you are having difficulty buying your home within the time given.

• Download Form RTA5: first reminder notice to complete your Right to Acquire application (PDF, 205K)

• Download Form RTA6: final notice to complete your Right to Acquire application (PDF, 174K)

• Help with PDF files

Useful contacts

• Home and community contacts