Can you buy your social housing?

To be sold, the accommodation must meet the following 2 conditions:

• Comply with minimum standards habitability and energy performance
• Have been purchased or built by a social landlord for more than 10 years (except in special economic or social circumstances and by reasoned decision of the prefect of department or the president of the council of the metropolis).

Only certain people can buy the social housing you live in. This is the tenant or his/her spouse, or of one of its ascendants or descendants :

The total income of the people who will live in the dwelling must not exceed a maximum amount.

This maximum amount varies depending on whether or not at least 1 of these persons has a Mobility Inclusion Card (MIC) with Disability :

You can partially finance the purchase of your social housing with a zero interest rate loan (PTZ), i.e. a loan that does not generate interest. One of the ways to do this is to respect the resource conditions of the PTZ.

You can also finance the purchase of your social housing with a Social Accession Loan (SAP) or a housing share loan.

The social landlord may offer to purchase your home as part of a lease-purchase agreement or a contract of sale of building to be renovated.

The social lessor shall fix the sale price, taking into account the prior assessment by the State services.

The sale of the accommodation may be on the initiative:

• Either from social lender who wants to sell social housing
• Or the tenant who wishes to purchase the social housing he has lived for at least 2 years.
  The tenant must send his purchase request to the social lessor, by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. The landlord has 2 months to accept or refuse this request. He has to give the reason.

Before the sale, the social lessor must provide certain information in writing to the buyer:

• Amount of rental charges for the last 2 years (and condominium charges if they exist)
• List of work carried out in the last 5 years
• List of works to improve the common parts and equipment envisaged by the social landlord
• Assessment of the overall amount of this work and the share which will be borne by the purchaser
• Document specifying that the purchaser will have to pay property tax on built properties, every year, starting on the 1st^re year following the year of sale
• Where the immovable is in co-ownership, a copy of the description of the division of the immovable and the rules governing co-ownership.

The social lender must inform the purchaser of the possibility of using a free consumer ombudsman in the event of a dispute over the sale of the accommodation.

There are specific clauses in the contract for the sale of social housing to its occupant.

Redemption

The social landlord is obliged to include a systematic buy-back clause in the contract for the sale of social housing.

This clause obliges the lessor to buy back the dwelling within 10 years of the purchase of the social housing by its occupant, when the purchaser is in at least one of the following situations:

• Loss of employment
• Separation (example: divorce)
• Health problem (under certain conditions).

Resale

Specific rules apply when the occupier who has purchased his social housing wants to resell it. If this information is not included in the contract of sale, the latter is not valid. Rules depend on the original purchase date:

Leasing

Specific rules apply when the occupant who has purchased his social housing wishes to rent it. If this information is not included in the contract of sale, the latter is not valid. Rules depend on the original purchase date: