‘It was sold as a dream but became a nightmare’

The common ownership, which was launched as a step stone to ride the property staircase, was designed to be an answer to a challenging housing market.

But behind the hope, the complaints of the housing observer – repair, costs and sales – lies a growing wave of discontent because it rises.

“None of the rights of the landlords and the tenants had no obligations,” Diana, who bought a common ownership property in East London in February 2020 with her husband Chris. He said.

Shared ownership plans It involves purchasing the share of a property and paying rent in the rest.

However, the couple decided to sell in 2021 after finding “traumatic”.

They said they had to try to sell as a period of candidacy that the housing association or the landlord had the right to find a buyer for the common ownership house.

Two years later, and after 10,000 £ worse, with less than they paid, they finally sold it.

“This is a great con and we felt the trap, Di Diana said.

“Not being able to sell was a trauma.”

They returned to private leasing because “much simpler and easier” than Chris.

Now Diana says he will not recommend the plan because “they sell it to you as a dream, but then it was a nightmare.”

According to the figures, there are currently about 250,000 common ownership households in the UK.

According to the British Housing Survey, there were about 202,000 in 2019-20.

Despite More shared property ownership was presented every year, The complaint figures obtained with the request of BBC Freedom of Information (FOI) law show that common ownership complaints have increased by 400% in the last five years and continue to rise.

FOI also:

• There has been a rapid increase in the number of complaints of Ombudsman about shared property duties; It took 1,564 in 2024 – almost five times of 324 received in 2020
• Shared property complaints increased faster than wider social housing
• 44% of the complaints made in the last five years were in London and the second highest number in the South East

The most common complaints are related to repair, costs, management of relations and transportation and sales of properties.

In 2017, Kathy acquired a 40% share with a friend in a two -bedroom apartment in North London. The remaining 60% pays a subsidized rent.

44 -year -old, “I don’t have a bank of my mother and father. Either he was or he rented most of my salary and he has the feeling that I will never be on the staircase of the property or I have my own field.” He said.

“I love my apartment and my community.

“But especially mega disadvantages about the level of service we receive from finance and transparency and housing provider.”

In the last eight years, he said that his costs have increased too much, including more than 200 £ increase per month in service charges, he could not afford to get a lodger and increase his share.

He said that the repairs have been completed for years, that a buzzer has been added for a year and a sewage system has been defective since 2012.

“He was carrying sewage and flowing directly into the river and the children were entering the playground. He drowned in the summer.” He said.

“They sent all these consultants and collected everything to us. The sewerage system was not suitable for the purpose, why are we paying?”

Kathy is not named the housing association because he is afraid that his neighbors will devalu the property.

“I have to buy a lodger in my house to help me keep my head on the water.”

“Sell my long -term plan – I can’t continue like this.”

Fatima acquired a common ownership property in 2019 after he was released from two rental properties when he was younger.

As a single parent, he said that there was no “no way”, so the shared property was “the only option”.

Now, due to the 80% increase in service fees in last year, Fatima complained with the others in the block and said they would not pay the increase until it was researched.

Repairs have been a problem for a long time, he said. When the BBC department was pulled, the common corridors were heated to 31C (88f) and the elevator was broken.

“The biggest problem is to heat the common corridors of all heating costs entering our service fees. The building cooks from the inside.”

He said that the shared ownership model was “an option that could work if there were not many companies.”

Authorized, a manager agent assigned a free owner as well as a housing association, he said.

“We don’t know who we’re going, everything takes so long.”

Fatima added: “I have a being, but if so and not appropriate, it is not an entity.

“Always in my mind. It causes a lot of concern.”

Residential Ombudsman Richard Blakeway said that the “natural complexity” of common property offers difficulties to landlords and residents.

“Shared property has existed for decades, and there are still some inequalities in the way of working that directs complaints to us.” He said.

He described a “incompatibility” between the expectation and understanding of the owner and the landlord.

“While we can start as smiles, we can see that this relationship is broken very quickly.”

The authority added that the number of parties relevant may be “an internal depressing for a common owner, sending it from the column and a feeling of being phobed in different parts of the process”.

“I can also see that they do not always have all the arms in their hands to solve the problem from a landlord’s point of view.” He said.

“Bring all this together and there is a perfect storm – and that’s what’s going on to our tables.”

The authority added that the landlords should improve communication and transparency and that the government should mention “basic inequalities in the form of design of common property”.

Although the joint ownership council, which is an interchangeable attempt, believes that common ownership has an “important role” in addressing housing needs, it admitted that “it has not always worked as much as for everyone” and “key challenges” should be discussed.

“We take the concerns expressed by the residential Ombudsman and its common owners very seriously.”

Lately Developed a code “Standing the best practices and consumer protection”, “Better support for partners in marketing, purchasing and management of transparency, justice and houses,” he says.

However, Timea Szabo of the campaign group says the shared owners’ network is “very little, too late”.

“This is a sector that does not constantly comply with their legal obligations – some housing providers who support the code have more than one finding of the names of the names.” He said.

“We do not think that a voluntary application rule will have a lot of impact on daily experiences.”

In February 2025, the figures shared with 140 (59%) BBC Show 83 (59%) of the common owners who participated in the survey struggled to sell their shares, including a short rent that the shared owner could not legally expand.

A housing, the Ministry of Community and the local government spokesman, “some of the difficulties faced by some of the difficulties faced,” he said.

Sözcü, the government “to think more to improve the experience of shared owners, to implement measures to increase the transparency of service fees this year, as well as the consultant, tenants and tenants to take into account the hosts to keep better to take into account”.