What is the Right to Buy?

The Right to Buy is a government scheme to allow secure tenants the right to buy their Council home at a discounted price.  Your Homes Newcastle’s Right to Buy team deals with all Right to Buy sales of Council homes in Newcastle upon Tyne.

19 June 2012

With the recent changes to Right to Buy legislation we have become very concerned about the methods of assistance that some private companies are offering tenants in the Right to Buy process who could be operating in your area. These companies do not represent Your Homes Newcastle or Newcastle City Council. 

Tenants are normally contacted by door-to-door representatives from private companies offering to help them buy their Council homes. They may offer a mortgage, legal services or an "all-in" package that may include home improvements after buying. In some cases tenants do not want to buy their home but feel pressured into signing forms just to get rid of the salesperson. 

By signing documents you have not read properly, you may be entering into a legal agreement in which you may have to pay the company thousands of pounds.

You are of course free to deal with such companies if you wish, but we feel we should bring this to your attention. If you are approached by a person or company offering to help you buy your home, ask for identification, check out what’s in it for them and feel free to talk to us before signing up to any deal. 

If you are interested in buying your home contact us. We will arrange for a valuation to be carried out on your home free of charge. Our valuers all carry personal identification with them so please ask to see it when they arrive to your home to carry out your valuation.

Contact us if you have any queries or cause for concern. If you would like to make a complaint about any behaviour that you think has been improper, you could contact the City Council’s Trading Standards Section on 0191 211 6191.

Find out more

• How do I apply for the Right to Buy?
• Right to Buy process chart
• Do I qualify?
• Discount rules
• Selling and moving on
• Costs of buying your home
• Frequently asked questions
• Contact us

Knowing our customers

We must comply with The Money Laundering Regulations 2003 which require us to put certain control measures in place to make sure we know our customers, including conducting customer identification and verification. 

The Government made changes to the legislation in 2007, giving us the right to ask customers how they will fund the purchase of a property.

We must be able to confirm the identity of our customers’, their home addresses and how they will fund their Right to Buy purchase.

To enable us to comply with these Regulations’ please provide the us with an identity document and evidence of your address from the lists below (photocopies only). All applicants are required to send in these documents.

Identity documents (please send one of the following):

• A current signed passport.
• A current UK driving licence with photograph.
• A current full UK driving licence (old version – but not old version of provisional driving licence)

Evidence of address (please send one of the following):

• A utility bill issued within the last three months (but not a mobile phone bill).
• A local authority tax bill valid for the current year.
• Bank, building society or credit union statement showing current address.
• Current UK driving licence (old full licence or new photo card licence) if not used for evidence of identity.

Please contact the Right to Buy team if you have any questions or would like more help.