Staircasing

Staircasing under the First Time Buyers Initiative

Information on Staircasing

When you originally bought your FTBI home you will have got a mortgage for a certain percentage of the property’s value (at least 50%), and received financial help from the FTBI scheme to make up the rest. When you sell the property, you will repay the percentage of FTBI help from a share of the total sale proceeds. Therefore if you originally received 50% of the purchase price, your repayment will be 50% of the total value when you sell the property.

You can make part repayments and decrease the amount of English Partnerships percentage by a process known as staircasing.  You can staircase at any point three months after you originally bought your home. You can decide how much you buy although it must be at least 10% of your home’s market value.

Back to top

The benefits of staircasing

Once you make a part repayment through staircasing, it will reduce the fees you would have to pay after three years of owning your FTBI home. Your mortgage payments will increase but it does mean that you are entitled to a greater share of the total sale proceeds when you sell in the future.

For this reason we recommend that, if you can, you should consider repaying part or all of the  financial help on your home, before you consider making plans for improvements or alterations to your home, and anyway as soon as possible.

Back to top

The process explained

If you are interested in staircasing you should e-mail, write to or call us using the contact details listed in the contact us section of this website.

You can make staircasing payments at any time three months after you bought the property. The amount you staircase or part repay must be at least 10% of your home’s market value. There is no limit on how many times you can staircase but you cannot owe less than 15% of the property’s value.  So, if we work out the amount you still owe on the FTBI assistance after staircasing as less than 15%, you will have to repay the total amount.

Once you have contacted us we will send you an information pack within five working days which explains the procedure and details of what happens next. This will involve working out exactly how much it will cost you to staircase (make part repayments). You must do this by getting an independent valuer, who is a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) to value your property.  It is your responsibility to pay for this valuation.

You should appoint your valuer within 14 days of making your first application to us to staircase. The valuer will need to give us the valuation within a further seven working days.

Within five working days of receiving your independent valuation, we will issue confirmation of the agreed value for a part repayment and send instructions to your solicitors for transferring funds.

You will confirm whether you want to go ahead. You can let us know at any point within three months of making your first application. If you do not contact us within this time period, you will have to make a new application.

Once the staircasing transaction has taken place, the final stage will be to update our records to show that you are entitled to an increased share of the total sale proceeds if the property is sold in the future. We will also change the yearly fee as a result. We will also send you a confirmation letter.

Back to top

Repayments

If you want to make a full repayment so that you own the whole property, you can also do this.

Back to top

Selling

You can choose to sell your property at any time and an independent valuer (who must be a member of the RICS) will decide what it is worth. You must sell the property on the open market at the market valuation. Once you have found a buyer, and they have made an offer that you have accepted, before you can sell, we must approve the value you have agreed with your purchaser. You must repay the financial help you received on the purchase of your property as a share of the total sale proceeds from selling the property. You are also responsible for paying the costs of selling, including the cost of the home information pack (HIP).

Back to top

Financial advice

We recommend that you get advice from an independent financial advisor (IFA) to make sure you are not stretching yourself financially. When you plan to make a full or part repayment, you could consider discussing it with your existing mortgage lender. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or any other debt secured on it. You must always get our permission before you agree to a bigger mortgage, re-mortgage or any extra loans secured on the property. This is a legal obligation that you agreed to when you signed English Partnerships mortgage deed.

Back to top

Your responsibilities

All of the conditions governing staircasing, including how we decide on the valuation of your property, are shown in English Partnerships buyers’ charging document and mortgage deed which you signed when you originally bought your home.

This document gives us certain powers and responsibilities.

Back to top



Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up payments on a mortgage or any other debt secured on it.

Check that this mortgage will meet your needs if you want to move or sell your home or you want your family to inherit it.  If you are in any doubt, seek independent advice.