The Housing (Right to Acquire) Regulations 1997

The right to acquire

118.—(1) A tenant of a registered social landlord who satisfies the conditions in section 16(1)(a) and (b) of the [1996 c. 52.] Housing Act 1996 has the right to acquire, that is to say, the right, in the circumstances and subject to the conditions and exceptions stated in the following provisions of this Part—

(a) if the dwelling-house is a house and the landlord owns the freehold, to acquire the freehold of the dwelling-house,

(b) if the landlord does not own the freehold or if the dwelling-house is a flat (whether or not the landlord owns the freehold), to be granted a lease of the dwelling-house.

(2) Where a tenancy is a joint tenancy then, whether or not each of the joint tenants occupies the dwelling-house as his only or principal home, the right to acquire belongs jointly to all of them or to such one or more of them as may be agreed between them; but such an agreement is not valid unless the person or at least one of the persons to whom the right to acquire is to belong occupies the dwelling-house as his only or principal home.