Your guide to staircasing

The valuation

Your valuation should be done by one of the valuers on our panel. If a panel valuer does not cover your area, you can use a local valuer, as long as they are part of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Please contact us with their details before instructing them as we must send some important guidelines.

The valuer will ask you about your rent, service charges and improvements you have made to your home. They will then separately assess any improvements you have made to your home.

You must have asked our permission before making any improvements. Improvements made without our permission may not be considered when you come to staircase.

The price will be a percentage of the full market value. For example, if the full value of your home is £200,000 and you want to buy the remaining 50%, the cost will be: £200,000 x 50% = £100,000.

The valuer will send you their report and invoice you directly. You should make sure that you are happy with the valuation report and that it will be valid before you send it to us. Typically, valuation reports expire every three months. If this expires before you complete your purchase, you will need to pay for an updated valuation.

Improvements

The price of the share you're buying will be a percentage of the value without the improvements, as shown in the following example.

The full value of your home is £203,000. This includes £3,000 of improvements you have made. The value without your improvements is £200,000 (£203,000 minus the £3,000 of improvements). This is known as the 'net value'. If you own a 50% share and want to buy the remaining share, the price will be 50% of the net value. That is, £200,000 x 50% = £100,000.

Not all improvements add value. Carpets, curtains and furniture which haven't been fitted do not count as improvements. Some improvements may fall in value due to wear and tear. The valuer must list the improvements on the report, so make sure you're clear what should be included. For information on home improvements, please read our guide.

Please note that a lease extension is lease maintenance and cannot be considered a home improvement.

We recommend that you speak to your current lender or an independent financial advisor (IFA) when deciding on the size of share that you can afford. We advise that you speak to a financial advisor before you start the process to see how much money you will be able to borrow. See our list of recommended IFAs on the page below.

If you need to amend the share that you have initially told us you want to buy, and we have already instructed our solicitors, this will cause a delay that may result in you having to update your valuation. It will take us up to five working days to process this request to change the share that you will be buying and provide the updated memorandum.

The extra shares come in certain sized 'chunks' set out in your lease, usually 20% or 25%. The minimum amount you can buy is 10%, although this may involve amending your lease, which your solicitor can arrange. Please note that you can only buy shares in lots of 5% with a minimum share of 10%: 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, etc.

Please be aware that some of our homes cannot be bought outright. On a limited number of developments you will only be able to buy a share up to 70%, 75%, 80% or 95%. Your lease includes information about staircasing restrictions, if there are any.

If you did not pay stamp duty on the full value of your home, you may need to pay additional stamp duty. We cannot advise on stamp duty but your solicitor should be able to answer any questions for you.

You'll need to use solicitors when you buy an extra share in your home. Please find a list of solicitors who know how staircasing works on the page below, or you can use your choice of solicitor.

In our experience, lessees frequently experience complications with their staircasing when using the solicitor instructed by the bank. We recommend that you use your own solicitor but if you choose to use the banks solicitor, please remember that the bank is their client and they may not proactively look after your interests. This may prolong the process and often results in an updated valuation being required. They may also charge you extra fees that may not be transparent at the beginning, depending on the requirements of your staircasing.

Some people prefer to use the solicitor who dealt with their original purchase – they should have easier access to information about your property. We need the details of your solicitor before you can go ahead with staircasing.

We'll need a copy of your lease to forward to our solicitors. You should have a copy of your lease from when you purchased your home; however, you can get a copy from the Land Registry if need be. You can call them or get a copy online. Notting Hill Genesis will not have a copy of your lease and we are not able to proceed without this. Please note, we will only accept a scanned copy of your lease.

You’ll need to fill out the staircasing instruction form available in MyAccount - My Enquiries > Make an Enquiry > Leaseholder Requests > Staircasing. If you don't have access to the MyAccount portal, you can fill out the staircasing instruction form on our website. You’ll need to attach a copy of your valuation and lease when you send the form. Please send all your documents at the same time. Please note that we aren’t able to start processing your application until we have the staircasing instruction form, the lease and an up to date valuation.

Keep in mind:

• Your valuation is valid for three months. If this expires before you complete your purchase you will need to pay for an updated valuation
• You must arrange finances quickly, including the mortgage, as this can take several weeks
• The solicitors on our panel are familiar with staircasing. If you choose a different solicitor please check that they have experience with staircasing. If you change solicitors during the process, this will slow the completion and may result in you needing an updated valuation
• If for any reason you decide not to proceed with the purchase of more shares in your home, after we instruct the solicitors, you'll need to pay our solicitors fees.

• Within five working days of receiving your filled-in form, valuation and lease, we'll write to our solicitor and your solicitor with the details of the transaction.
• Our solicitor will send out the legal paperwork to your solicitor and us for signing.
• Once the legal paperwork has been completed and your funds are ready, your solicitor will arrange a date to complete the purchase of your extra share.
• Our solicitor will ask us to check if you owe any rent – we'll collect any amounts when the purchase is completed. Please note that if you pay your service charges directly to a managing agent, you will need to get an up to date statement of account to show that there are no arrears. Your solicitor will then pass this on to our solicitor. We'll not be able to complete without this. You'll need to pay the whole service charge demand in advance, even if this has just been added to your account.
• After the purchase is completed, we will amend your rent account according to your new share, or end your tenancy (if this applies).
• If you're buying 100% of your property, your solicitor needs to arrange to transfer the title into your name for leasehold properties. If we are not the freeholder of your property, you will need to contact whoever is and arrange to pay service charges to them direct.