implications of buying ex-council house

[Mel]

I spotted something on this thread that worried me in relation to having to provide my details to the county council when buying a house from one of their direct tenant purchasers -
http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=46055

I've spoken to my solicitor and to the housing department at the council, and it seems that a person buying the house needs to submit their contract on the purchase of the house and also their loan offer papers.
It seems a bit intrusive considering that the purchaser is paying full market value for the property...

However, I'm wondering are there any other implications to submitting this information that I'm not aware of? Both solicitor and council assure me that they are not really interested in me per se and more interested in the seller. The council person tells me that the information is to satisfy themselves that I am not an investor - I asked how they would know this anyway and she started to back track and say again that they weren't really that interested.

But someone else I spoke to who considered buying a council house seems to think that I would not be allowed to rent out this house for example? I just want to make sure that I'm not paying full market value for a house that will have conditions attached to it.

Many thanks,
Mel.

 

[Peadar]

I just want to make sure that I'm not paying full market value for a house that will have conditions attached to it

That's exactly what you are doing. Although you should be able to get the house a bit cheaper because there is no investors allowed. There is a smaller market for that kind of house.

Peadar

 

[Mel]

That's exactly what you are doing. Although you should be able to get the house a bit cheaper because there is no investors allowed. There is a smaller market for that kind of house.

Peadar

Pity the auctioneer couldn't have let me know this at the start, how would anyone know that there were conditions like that attached? and to be honest nobody else has confirmed this to me yet, it's only hearsay up to now...

Am I in a position to renegotiate the price? We haven't returned contracts yet, they are in a big hurry to sell, and also seem to be denying any knowledge of furniture being included in the sale, which the auctioneer assured me there was.

I'm very annoyed about all this, as only for this site and speaking to the council myself I would still only have half the picture!

 

[mell61]

i had to go the same route purchasing a property, basically the local council want to be sure that the seller, who probably got the house at a highly discounted rate, wouldn't end up looking for another property from them.
I didn't think it was that intrusive, especially as I had seen other people buy houses for 1/2 of market value, sell up within the year and then re-apply for a council property!

 

[Mel]

i had to go the same route purchasing a property, basically the local council want to be sure that the seller, who probably got the house at a highly discounted rate, wouldn't end up looking for another property from them.
I didn't think it was that intrusive, especially as I had seen other people buy houses for 1/2 of market value, sell up within the year and then re-apply for a council property!

I can understand that they are interested in the seller who got the discount - my point is that I won't be getting any discount yet am subject to the same scrutiny. I've looked at their policy on sale to tenants over the last few days - the discounts do seem to be enormous.