Judge sides with shared owner in dispute with landlord over property valuation and staircasing process
A judge has ruled that a landlord must accept the valuation obtained by a shared owner in his attempt to staircase to full ownership of the property.
A dispute arose after David Doran became frustrated with how Estuary Housing Association handled the valuation process during his staircasing application.
Staircasing is the process in which shared owners exercise the right to buy a larger stake in their shared ownership home.
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Mr Doran began the process in 2022, however he ended up in a row with the landlord about the valuation of the property, which Estuary described as “flawed”.
The dispute rested on the fact that Mr Doran’s valuation came in at around £100,000 less than what Estuary believed the property is worth because the valuer had assumed the shared owner was responsible for the cost of fixing fire safety defects.
But as the landlord was paying for this work, it sought to challenge the valuation.
In March 2023, Inside Housing reported that emails obtained by Mr Doran through the Freedom of Information Act showed staff at Estuary and the Greater London Authority discussing a potential breach of funding guidelines by querying the application.
The subsequent legal case has now ruled that the Mr Doran’s valuation and staircasing process was done in accordance with the lease, and the judge ordered Estuary to pay back the nearly £14,000 in rent it had received while the shared owner was prevented from staircasing.
A spokesperson for Estuary said: “It is correct the court found in Mr Doran’s favour in this matter. While we are disappointed, we respect the decision of the court and are acting accordingly.”
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