News & Developments from Joint Equity Ltd
Joint Equity in the media:
► The Saffron Walden Reporter Homes 24 Supplement 16th Feb ’07 (Download)
More news:
► Sign up for the Owners Newsletter
► Sign up for the Investors Newsletter
► Joint Equity community updates on our blog
Press:
If you are journalist, click here for press releases and press office contact details.
Please remember Joint Equity are introducers of mortgages and are unable to provide advice on any financial product or service.
All mortgage advice will be provided by our FSA Authorised and Regulated Mortgage Brokers.
The Joint Equity Scheme is for first-time buyers, home owners and property investors. This site is developed and maintained by Joint Equity ltd. ©Joint Equity (2006)
Joint Equity Ltd works with Mortgage Beaters Ltd to provide case studies & Illustrations to prospective Owner-Partners & Investor-Partners. Joint Equity Ltd does not carry out any regulated activities and so is not regulated by the FSA (Financial Services Authority). Joint Equity Ltd are introducer appointed representatives of Mortgage Beaters Ltd, which are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
The content of this website is accurate to the best of our knowledge and for information only. We do not provide financial advice.
► Stamp Duty and the changes
In The Government has raised the initial stamp duty exemption threshold to £175,000
for 12 months.from the 2nd September 2008. It will revert to £125,000 on 1st September
2009.
1% stamp duty will now be levied on properties from £175,001 to £250,000.
Click here with your questions or comments.
► 2008 Budget makes changes to stamp duty, but the outcome is unclear
August 08 update still no idea, maybe it’s been dropped quietly?
June 08 update there is still no guidance
In yesterday's budget announcement, a change to the Stamp Duty payable on Shared
Home Ownership properties was mentioned.
There is no information available at the moment on the details of this change, and
we don’t know whether or not it applies only to Government schemes or to private
schemes as well.
This change is due to come into force in April and we're investigating and watching
developments closely.
As soon as any information becomes available on the Government websites, we'll post
the information here.
Click here with your questions or comments.
► Joint Equity business model is cloned
It is said that imitation is the highest form of flattery and it did not take long for the more unscrupulous people, in the property industry, to see the opportunities available in shared home ownership and to copy our model.
However, they are not content to just make a reasonable return along with the Owner-Partner and Investor-Partner they want to get involved with gifted deposits from Developers and building a chain of dummy organisations to obscure the origin of the deposit from the Lender.
Rightly so the Lenders do not like to lend to these, well sharks, and any one who buys with them is almost certainly going to pay well over the sale price as the so called investor keeps all the kick back from the developer to themselves and charge their “partner” the full asking price, or more.
How do you check that they are ethical investors? Ask to see their Treating Customer Fairly policy, check their Deed of Co-Ownership for default process, and check out if their fees are transparent.
Other than to alert our Partners to the problem of unscrupulous vultures there is very little we can do. We remain very open and transparent, our fees are clearly laid out and we require both Partners to have independent legal and financial advice before they sign the Joint Equity Partner’s Contract (our Deed of Co-Ownership).
In the words of the well known advert “we do what it says on the tin” and our “tin” is this web site where there are over 95 pages of information about us and our services. We have been asked why we put so much information here with the risk it will be copied, well the short answer is it our culture to provide all the information up front then if you want to buy with us you do so with fore knowledge.
We are not averse to dealing with Developers and we are currently negotiating with several but if we get very good prices our Owners, Investors and Funders will know the real sale price and will get the benefit of the discount we can negotiate.
If you want to know if the home you are looking at is being sold under the real Joint Equity email us and ask us.
