After buying

After you buy your home, you should be given an 'After Sales' brochure by the agent who deals with post-sales work in your area.

This should be able to answer most questions you have about things you can and can't do under the terms of the Help to Buy scheme.

Mortgage Charter

The UK government recently published the Mortgage Charter. It sets out standards that mortgage lenders in the UK will follow to help mortgage borrowers worried about higher rates.

The charter also covers people with mortgages in Scotland.

If you bought your property with help from a Shared Equity Scheme you do not need to get individual permission to be covered by the Mortgage Charter.

If you're planning to switch to interest only payments, you should let Link Housing Association know.

After sales

The Scottish Government has prepared After Sales Shared Equity Procedures to help with any post-sale questions from shared equity owners.

The document contains sample emails and templates to be used for situations including when a:

• property is re-mortgaged
• person wishes to purchase additional equity
• person wishes to add or remove a person from a shared equity documentation

The Scottish Government has also prepared a Post Sale Booklet for Buyers which covers the most common questions relating to any post-sale situation for the Help to Buy (Scotland) schemes.

Increasing your equity

Although you'll own at least 85% of your home's equity when you first buy it using the Help to Buy scheme, you can repay the Scottish Government to increase your share.

If you want to increase your share, you have to do this by at least 5% each time.

You will be able to increase your share all the way up to 100%, meaning the Scottish Government no longer has a share in your home and will not be due any money if you decide to sell it.

If you want to buy a bigger share of your home, you will have to pay all the valuation and legal costs as well as the administrative costs of the organisation that will handle your request.

Remortgaging

If you want to remortgage your home, you have to contact the registered social landlord or local council who handled the purchase of your home.

You'll be asked to provide information on why you need to remortgage or take out additional lending. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis and any request to borrow additional lending will depend on the value of your home as well as the level of mortgage that you have repaid.

If you go ahead with remortgaging, you'll be responsible for all the costs, including the administrative cost of the social landlord or local authority and Scottish Governments solicitors. You will be told at an early stage what costs these will be.

Renting out your home

Your home is expected to be your sole residence. The Scottish Government will not allow any form of subletting as a general rule.

Selling your home

When you want to sell your home, you'll have to pay the Scottish Government their share of the sale price depending on how much equity it owns.

Examples

If the Scottish Government gave you 15% of the home's purchase price and you haven't paid any of this back, it will be due 15% of the sale price.

If a house is bought for £150,000 (with Scottish Government share of 15%) and it sells for £170,000, the Scottish Government is entitled to 15% of £170,000.

This is the same even if the house value drops – if a house sells for £130,000, Scottish Government is entitled to 15% of £130,000.

If you've already repaid the Scottish Government's equity share, so you own 100% of the equity, when you sell the house you will get the full 100% of the sale price.