Flexible tenure 




If you are in financial difficulty we strongly recommend you seek professional advice as soon as possible, before your situation worsens and your home is put at risk.  You should alert your mortgage lender and seek advice from an independent debt counselling agency, eg, the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Please click here to open our Flexible tenure leaflet.

We will assess applications for flexible tenure (buying back shares in your property) from people in severe financial difficulties who have purchased a shared ownership home through Moat.  This option is only available to people who have exhausted all other options and require this assessment as a last resort.  We can only help people whose financial difficulties are connected with their inability to pay their mortgage and/or rent, not those who have accumulated debts through unsecured loans or credit cards.

Also as a last resort, a flexible tenure option exists under which Moat shared owners could become assured tenants of Moat. Cases approved to proceed via this option are extremely rare. Once a property has been repossessed by the lender, flexible tenure ceases to be an option.

Flexible tenure is regulated by The National Affordable Homes Agency (The Tenant Services Authority).  According to their rules Moat can only buy back shares in a property to the value of the outstanding mortgage and any rent and/or mortgage arrears.  Funding for this requires special approvals that may, or may not, be granted. Flexible tenure is not a given right or entitlement for shared owners.

You will need to be a Moat shared owner, currently owning less than 100% of the property. You must be paying rent on the unsold equity in the property. The term “rent” excludes ground rent and service charges. Flexible tenure is not available to other owner occupiers, including former shared owners or those who have bought a property through a discount or incentive scheme such as Right to Buy, Right to Acquire, the Tenants’ Incentive Scheme or the HomeBuy (shared equity) scheme.

Please contact Moat’s Home Ownership team on 0845 359 6161 to explore flexible tenure options that may available to you.  We will ask you to supply the following information as evidence to support your case:

• A copy of your most recent mortgage redemption statement

• Two written valuations on your property from estate agents

• Full details (in writing) of your current financial situation explaining  to us why you wish to be considered for flexible tenure.  Your letter to us should provide evidence to show that other short and long term options have been exhausted. These include loan rescheduling, or selling and moving to a cheaper property within a reasonable travel to work area. This information should be based upon advice from an independent debt-counselling agency, which should include consideration of your eligibility for Housing Benefit.

• Completion of two forms for us to assess your financial commitments – click here for creditor list and income/expenditure assessment form.

We will consider your case once we have received all of the above information. Our assessment will include consideration of your ability to meet future repair and maintenance liabilities. Further information may be requested and we may refer to you Moat’s welfare benefits team for an assessment on whether it may be possible to maximise your income.

The above rules differ slightly in the case of property specifically built as “Shared Ownership for the Elderly”.  The differences relate to flexible tenure to pay for essential repairs or maintenance.  Details are available on request from Moat’s Home Ownership team.  Note that this option is not available for other types of shared ownership properties which happen to be owned by elderly people.

Moat staff are not qualified to provide financial advice.  We suggest you contact an independent financial adviser. For details of IFAs on Moat's panel, click here.









Your home is at risk if you do not keep up rent and mortgage repayments or payments on other loans secured on it.

Please note that the value of properties can go down as well as up.