Do I have a pre-emption clause in my lease?

Whether there is a pre-emption clause is entirely dependent on the terms of your Lease.

Shared ownership customers will be required to sell their property via our Resales team in the first instance. Shared ownership customers who have completed final staircasing may still need to offer the property back to L&Q if the sale is within 21 years of final staircasing.

If you have purchased through a statutory scheme (Right to Buy/Right to Acquire) you will need to offer the property back to L&Q within the first 10 years after initial sale.

This is called a pre-emption clause and you'll require a compliance certificate from us to confirm that we do not wish to buy back your home in order to sell – as the buyer's solicitors will need this in order to register the sale at the Land Registry.

There's also a clause restricting selling within the first three to six months whereby any increase in value from date of completion of the final staircase and subsequent sale price is subject to a claw-back and you'll need to pay some of this profit back to us.

Please be aware that the pre-emption clause isn’t something that we regularly exercise, however the clause gives us the opportunity to execute it should we wish to. 

If a pre-emption clause is found then your solicitor should contact our Lease Enquiries team by email at leaseenquiries@lqgroup.org.uk at their earliest opportunity.