Right to Buy

If you're a council tenant and you would like to buy your rented home at a discount, the Right to Buy scheme is available. The discount will be based on:

how long you have been a public sector tenant
the type of your property which you are buying
the market value of the property.

Current the maximum discount in Tower Hamlets is £16,000 for applications received from 21 November 2024.

Who is eligible?

You probably have the Right to Buy (RTB) if:

You’ve been a council tenant for a minimum of three years
You hold a secure tenancy

However, the property you are applying to buy must be your only or principal home. You may be able to exercise the Right to Buy jointly with members of your family who have lived with you for 12 months prior to you submitting your application. You can also buy with someone who is a joint tenant with you.

Flats

You will get a 50 per cent discount if you have been a public sector tenant for three to five years.

After five years, the discount goes up by 2 per cent for every extra year you have been a tenant, up to a maximum of 70 per cent. However, the discount amount is capped at £16,000 in London.

Houses

You get a 35 per cent discount if you have been a public sector for three to five years. After five years, the discount goes up by 1 per cent for every extra year you have been a tenant, up to a maximum of 70 per cet. However, the discount amount is capped at £16,000.

The application process

You are eligible for Right to Buy (RTB) if:

you’ve been a council tenant for a minimum of three years
you hold a secure tenancy

The property you are applying to buy must be your only or principal home.

You may be able to exercise the Right to Buy with family members who have lived with you for 12 months before your application.

You can also buy with someone who is a joint tenant with you.

Check if you're eligible

Apply online

If you are eligible and wish to buy your home, you will need to apply online via the Government's website and then submit to the council. You should submit your Right to Buy application using the link below as a scanned document/ image/ photo that is clearly legible.

Submit a Right to Buy application

Next steps

Accepting or denying your application - RTB2

We will have four weeks to decide on your application after we receive it. If you have rented from another landlord in the past three years, we have eight weeks.

In four weeks, we will invite you and any family members on the application (if applicable) to a brief meeting. We will go through the Right to Buy process, discuss becoming a leaseholder or freeholder, and give you an 'information pack'.

We usually ask all applicants to bring ID to the meeting. If we can't meet in person, we will set up a virtual meeting and send you the information pack.

Offer Notice - Section 125

Once we accept your application, we will value your home. We will then make a formal offer, called a Section 125 Notice (S125), within eight weeks (for houses) or 12 weeks (for flats). The S125 will detail the sale particulars, including the sale price and your eligible discount.

The Offer Notice will inform you of any planned major works for your building and your potential contribution if you choose to proceed with the home purchase.

Once you receive this offer notice, you will have three options, and you will have to let us know within 12 weeks whether:

You want to buy your home
You do not wish to buy your home, (and we will close your application)
You are not happy with the valuation and you would like your home to be revalued by the District Valuer, who is an independent Government employee.

If you don’t respond to the offer within 12 weeks, we will send you a notice called 'default notice'. This notice gives you 28 days to let us know your decision.

However, your application will be closed if we do not hear back from you within 28 days of sending you the default notice. A new right to buy application will be subject to a new valuation of your home.

If you requested a home re-valuation, you will get a new Offer Notice. This will include the District Valuer's valuation. The District Valuer's decision may be lower, the same, or higher than the initial offer.

We will advise you of the District Valuer’s review by way of a notice called the Section 128 Notice. You will also have 12 weeks to let us know your decision.

Completing the purchase of your home

After you confirm you are happy with the sale price and want to continue with your application, we will prepare it. We will send it to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets legal team for completion.

We will try to do this soon. We will tell you when your application has been sent to the legal team. Before this time we would have asked for your solicitors' details.

The legal team will send a sales pack to your Solicitors proposing a date for completion of the purchase.

If an applicant delays the sale process after accepting the purchase offer, and more than three months have passed since the Section 125 or 128 offer notice, we would serve the applicant a notice to complete.

This notice gives the applicant 56 days to complete the purchase. If the applicant has not completed the purchase after expiration of the 56 days, we will serve a final notice to complete. The final notice also gives the applicant another 56 days to complete the purchase.

If the purchase isn't done by the final notice's end, we might cancel the application. We suggest applicants talk to us about delays before the notice ends.

Delays in processing your application - your rights

Most sales go through without delays; however, sometimes there are delays.

If we do not send you the RTB2 or Section 125 notices within the time limits above, you may be allowed a reduction in the purchase price of your home.

If you require more information regarding the above, please contact us.

Alternatively, you can find out more on the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government website.

Here to help

We aim to help all Right to Buy applicants understand the process. We provide useful information and updates on their application progress.

We must protect the public purse. Only eligible residents can buy their homes. Therefore, we carry out some checks during the Right to Buy process.

We work closely with the council's anti-fraud and risk team. We investigate applications through internal and external inquiries to ensure they are valid.

All applicants and funders must fill out consented data search and anti-money laundering forms.

You can contact the Right to Buy Agent service on 0300 123 0913 for free advice regarding Right to Buy.

Alternatively, for more info on the RTB process, please call 020 7364 5015. Ask to speak to a helpful RTB officer.