Who can apply to buy their council home under the Right to Buy scheme, how to apply and what happens next.
To apply to buy your council home, you must have spent a total of at least three years as a tenant of one or more of the following:
If you have had any breaks as a tenant, you can still include previous tenancies in this three year total.
You may not be able to buy your council home if:
Before you apply, we recommend that you seek legal advice, and contact the Government’s Right to Buy service External link if you need more information.
When we receive your application, we will assess the condition of your property and value it from this date. We will not take any improvements you have made into account when making the valuation.
You may receive a discount on the value of your property. The amount will depend on the type of property and the total time you've been a tenant at council, housing association and armed forces properties.
The maximum amount of discount any tenant can receive is £102,400.
We cannot sell a property below the value of the costs we have spent on purchasing, building, improving and repairing the property in the past 10 years for properties built before April 2012 (15 years for properties built after this date).
This may mean you will receive less discount than your years of tenancy entitle you to, or you may not receive any discount at all.
You may be entitled to a discount of 35% on the value of your property up until the fifth year of your tenancy. From the sixth year of your tenancy, this discount will increase by 1% for every additional year you are a tenant, up to a maximum of 40 years and 70% discount.
We strongly recommend that you take legal advice before buying your flat or maisonette. Find out more about leaseholder responsibilities.
You may be entitled to a discount of 50% on the value of your property up until the fifth year of your tenancy.
From the sixth year of your tenancy, this discount will increase by 2% for every additional year you are a tenant, up to a maximum of 15 years and 70% discount.
If you sell within 5 years of buying your home from the Council, you will have to repay part, all, or in some cases more than the discount you received. The amount you repay depends on the value of your home when you sell it. If you have improved your home since buying it, we will take this into account.
If you are thinking about selling your ex-council house back to the council, please email us at house.sales@leeds.gov.uk.
Until you have bought your home, we still have a duty as your landlord to carry out repairs to the property. However, if a repair you have asked for is expensive, or would normally happen as part of a repairs programme, it may not be possible to do the work whilst you are applying to buy your home. This is because it may affect the value of the property.
You may therefore need to consider if you wish to buy your home in its present condition, or wait for the necessary work to take place before applying.
Once you have bought your home, we will no longer be responsible for carrying out repairs to your property. If other council properties have improvement works, your property will not receive these once you own your home, as any major work would affect the value of the property.
Complete online, print, hand sign, and return by post the Right to Buy application form to:
Home Ownership Team
3rd Floor West (South Office)
Civic Hall
Calverley Street
Leeds LS1 1UR
You can also contact the Home Ownership Team by phone on 0113 378 5685 for further support.
After we receive your application, we will contact you within four weeks to let you know whether your application has been successful.
If you have applied to buy a house or bungalow, we will let you know the purchase price within 12 weeks.
If you are applying to buy a flat or maisonette, we will give you details of the purchase price and service charges within 16 weeks.