Shared Ownership Council Code – Explainer

In this 2-part feature we take a look at the Shared Ownership Council Code, published on 2 June 2025 following a pilot with a small number of housing associations.

The Shared Ownership Council describes the Code as: ‘a cross-industry initiative designed to standardise best practices and consumer protection for shared ownership‘. It aims to: ‘ensure transparency, fairness and improved support for shared owners in marketing, purchasing and management of homes’.

The Code pulls together requirements under existing regulation and guidance on shared ownership, so they’re all in one place. It requires housing providers that sign up to adhere to some requirements that wouldn’t otherwise apply to shared ownership. And it also introduces a few new requirements, particularly around service charges.

In Part 1 of this 2-part feature, we summarise key features of the Shared Ownership Council Code. In Part 2, we will respond to the Code by exploring whether it achieves what it set out to achieve, whether it is sufficiently ambitious, and what happens next.

An overview of the SO Council Code

The Code has two main parts: principles and requirements.

7 key principles

• Clear information on what shared ownership is
• Clear information on costs
• Similar standards to those for purchasers of new-build homes on the open market
• Clear, accessible policies on staircasing and selling
• Options for support on managing unplanned costs
• Clear policies on service requests and complaints
• Equal opportunity to purchase a shared ownership home for people with a disability

5 sections on what housing providers must do to comply with the Code

• Part One: Accessibility
• Part Two: Exploring shared ownership
• Part Three: Living as a shared owner
• Part Four: Moving as a shared owner
• Part Five: Making complaints, monitoring and data

We provide a summary of the new Code below.

Part One: Accessibility

Vulnerability

Housing providers must identify and provide appropriate support to shared owners and prospective shared owners who are ‘vulnerable’.

In this context, vulnerability means people who are at increased risk of harm due to personal circumstances. This could include, for example, people who have recently experienced a traumatic life event, or who have low income and/or debt.

Protected characteristics

Housing providers must not disadvantage people with ‘protected characteristics’.

The Equality Act 2010 makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of nine specific ‘protected characteristics’: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. In a shared ownership context this could mean, for example, that housing providers shouldn’t have policies that disadvantage people who are reliant on income from benefits.

Part Two: Exploring shared ownership

Marketing, advertising and transparency

This section references the requirements of other Codes when it comes to marketing and advertising, including the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and CAP Code.

Under the Code housing providers must comply with some aspects of other codes and guidance that wouldn’t otherwise apply to shared ownership, with the aim of improving transparency and preventing mis-selling. For example, the Code requires a 14-day cooling-off period, during which prospective shared owners can cancel an agreement and receive a refund of the full reservation fee. This aligns with the requirements of New Homes Quality Board (NHQB) Code (from which shared ownership is currently excluded).

Pre-contract information

This section references the model lease and Key Information Documents (KIDS) as sources of information.

Additionally, the Code requires a new Service Charge Information Document (SCID) for new and resale shared ownership homes. The SCID includes information on:

• Block ownership, management and arrangement for the provision of services
• Initial service charges and details of any planned changes
• Illustrative scenarios for service charge increases

If housing providers receive an updated service charge estimate for a property during the sales process they must share the updated estimate with the prospective shared owner. (Shared Ownership Resources says: What does it suggest about current culture and practice that this needs to be spelt out?)

They must also publish a comprehensive and up-to-date list of additional fees and charges across the shared ownership journey (from purchase to resale).

New Homes

We’ve already mentioned the 14-day cooling-off period for new homes. The Code also requires a new home demonstration.

Part Three: Living as a shared owner

Service charges

The Code requires housing providers to sign up to the GLA Service Charge Charter principles, regardless of whether or not they are funded by the GLA to provide shared ownership.

• Transparency – ensuring leaseholders are provided with the information they need to understand their service charges.
• Affordability – ensuring that the affordability of service charges is a key consideration when setting or reviewing service charges.
• Design – encouraging design approaches for new build developments that minimise service charges while ensuring high-quality design.
• Challenge and redress – ensuring that leaseholders are aware of how to challenge their service charges and the routes to redress that are available to them.

Fees

Administrative fees must be reasonable and clearly explained. Housing providers can’t charge additional fees relating to pets (though they can pass on on any fees charged by the freeholder).

Defects and repairs

The defects period must last for 12 months from when the shared owner buys their home. There is an aspiration to increase the defects period to 24 months.

Where developers and managing agents are involved, the Code requires housing providers to proactively manage complaints about repairs, and communicate on an ongoing basis with the shared owner.

Service requests and training

Housing providers should learn from complaints, feeding into a process of continual service improvement and staff training.

Financial hardship

Housing providers must not seek possession where a reasonable alternative exists.

They must publish policies on support for shared owners experiencing financial hardship, including:

• Repayment options (where payment of arrears can be spread over a longer period)
• Buy backs (where the provider buys back the property from the shared owner)
• Downward staircasing (where the provider buys back a portion of the equity from the
• shared owner)
• Subletting

Staircasing

Housing providers must be transparent about the staircasing process and fees.

Part Four: Moving as a shared owner

Housing providers must be transparent about the selling process, and also the lease extension process. (Shared Ownership Resources says: Lease extension is included in the Moving section, but shared owners may want to extend a short lease even if they don’t move, if only to make things easier for beneficiaries of their will in the future).

Lease extensions

The Code offers three options for calculating the cost of lease extension premiums:

• Charging a nil premium
• Charging a premium which reflects the shared owner’s % share (not the total market value)
• Classifying the lease extension as an ‘improvement’, with subsequent staircasing valuations being based on the market value had lease extension not been undertaken (Shared Ownership Resources says: This doesn’t benefit shared owners who don’t or can’t staircase)

When a shared owner’s lease length falls to 90 years remaining, housing providers must inform them of this so that they are aware of the potential need to consider a lease extension.

RICS valuations

Providers must support cost effective updates of RICs valuations where they have expired or where they are above an existing offer (per existing guidance on RICS valuations in Homes England’s Capital Funding Guide).

Subletting and building safety

It’s not clear why this is in the Moving section, rather than the Living as a shared owner section. Regardless, the Code requires that housing providers must take a flexible and supportive approach to subletting requests, particularly where shared owners are facing increased costs due to building safety issues.

Part Five: Making complaints, monitoring and data

Managing complaints

Housing providers must be part of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme, and are responsible for their subcontractors: for example, marketing and estate agents.

Monitoring membership

The Shared Ownership Council will: ‘undertake a light touch verification process when members join the Code. This will be repeated annually when renewing membership’.

Data

Gaps in data are a huge, and widely acknowledged, problem when it comes to shared ownership. On this topic the Code requires that: ‘Providers must provide high quality data to Continuous Recording of Social Housing Lettings and Sales (CORE) on both initial sales and staircasing data’.

You can read the full Code on the Shared Ownership Council website – here.

In Part 2 of this 2-part feature, we respond to the Code by exploring whether it achieves what it set out to achieve, whether it is sufficiently ambitious, and what happens next.

Additional Resources

Shared Ownership Resources – Shared Ownership Council Code: Response