“It was sold as a dream, but it turned into a nightmare.”

Advertised as a stepping stone to riding a real estate ladder, shared ownership is designed to be one of the answers to the tough housing market.

But behind hope, there is a wave of frustration as complaints about home watchdogs — beyond repairs, costs and sales — are surged.

“We had no homeowner rights and no tenant obligations,” said Diana, who bought co-owned property in East London in February 2020 with her husband Chris.

A shared ownership scheme involves purchasing a share of the property and paying rent for the rest.

However, the couple decided to sell it in 2021 after they discovered “trauma.”

They said they need to try to sell through what is known as the nomination period in which the housing association or the landlord has an exclusive right to find a buyer of the co-owner’s home.

Two years later, £10,000 worsened and was revalued as less than what the property paid, and then finally sold.

“It was a big scam and we felt trapped,” Diana said.

“It was traumatic that we couldn’t sell it.”

According to Chris, they returned to private rentals because it was “much simpler and easier.”

Now Diana says she wouldn’t recommend this scheme because “they sell it to you as a dream, but it became a nightmare.”

Figures show that there are currently around 250,000 co-owned households in the UK.

According to the English housing survey, there were around 202,000 in 2019-20.

While more shared ownership properties were being offered year by year, the number of complaints obtained through the BBC’s Freedom of Information (FOI) Act requests continues to rise, with shared ownership complaints rising by almost 400% over the past five years.

I also discovered FOI:

The number of complaints received by the Ombudsman in connection with his shared ownership tenure is rapidly increasing. In 2024, I received 1,564. Almost five times the 324 received in 2020 share ownership complaints has risen faster than the wide range of social housing complaints made over the past five years, with 44% based in London and the Southeast having the second-highest number.

The most common complaints relate to repairs, costs, relationship management, and real estate transfer and sales.

Cathy bought a 40% stake with a friend in a two-bedroom flat in north London in 2017. She will pay the grant to the remaining 60%.

“I don’t have a Mom and Dad bank. It puts a majority of my salary in rent and feels I don’t have my own space,” the 44-year-old said.

“I love my apartment and community, and these are all amazing in terms of where the building is and how close it is to London.

“However, there are mega drawbacks, especially in terms of finances and transparency, and the level of service we receive from housing providers.”

Over the past eight years, she said her expenses have increased significantly. This means that you have to get accommodation and can’t afford to increase your share as service fees rise over £200 a month.

The repairs will take years to complete, she said. The buzzer has been broken for a year and has been incorrect in the sewer system since 2012.

“The sewage flooded and flowed directly into the river and into the children’s playground. It fell into the summer,” she said.

“They sent out all these consultants and charged us everything. The sewage system wasn’t suitable for purpose, so why do we pay?”

Cathy’s housing association is not named as it reduces her property as she is scared of her neighbors.

“It’s not affordable anymore. I need to live in my home to help pay and help keep my head above the water,” added Cathy.

“My long-term plan is to sell — I can’t continue like this.”

Fatima purchased property on shared property in 2019 after their two children were kicked out of two rental properties when they were young.

As a single parent, she said “there is no way” and was able to get a mortgage, so the shared ownership was “the only option.”

With service fees increased by 80% last year, in “binds,” Fatima complained along with others in the block, saying they wouldn’t pay the increase until a survey was conducted.

Repairs have been a problem for a long time, she said. When the BBC was filmed in her flat, the communal corridor was heated to 31C (88F) and the lift broke.

“The biggest problem is that all the heating costs incurred on our service charges are heating in the communal corridors. The building is cooked from inside.”

She said the shared ownership model is “an intermediary option that could work if there are not many companies involved.”

She said there were freeholders and housing associations who appointed managing agents.

“I don’t know who to go to. Everything takes a lot of time.”

Fatima added:

“It’s always in my mind. It causes a lot of anxiety.”

Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway said the “inherent complexity” of shared ownership presented challenges for landlords and residents.

“Common ownership has been around for decades, but there are still some inequality in the way it works that is causing us to complain,” he said.

He described the “disparity” between the expectations and understanding of the co-owner and the landlord.

“It can start with a smile, but you can see the relationship fall apart very quickly.”

He added that the number of people involved could be “a sense that although it is being suppressed for the shared owners, it is being handed over from the pillar to the mail and fobed in various parts of the process.”

“I can see from a landlord’s perspective that they don’t necessarily have all the levers in their hands,” he said.

“To put it all together, there’s a perfect storm. That’s what lands on our desks.”

He added that landlords must improve communication and transparency, and that the government must address “basic inequality in the way shared ownership is designed.”

The intersectoral initiative, the Council of Shared Ownership, believes that shared ownership has a “significant role” to play in addressing housing needs, but it recognizes that it “is not always working well for everyone” and that it needs to address “critical challenges.”

“We take the concerns raised by the housing ombudsman and the co-owner very seriously,” it added.

Recently I developed a code that “stands best practices and consumer protection.” Ensures “improvement in transparency, equity and support for shared owners of home marketing, purchasing and management.”

However, Timea Szabo, the campaign group’s shared owners network, said it was “too little, too late.”

“This is a sector that has consistently failed to comply with legal obligations. Some housing providers supporting the code have multiple maladministration results of that name,” she said.

“I don’t think that voluntary norms of practice will have a major impact on daily experiences.”

The figures shared only with the BBC show of 83 out of 140 members of the co-owner surveyed in February 2025 have struggled to sell shares due to unresolved building safety issues, high service charges and short leases that the co-owner cannot legally extend.

The Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government spokesman said it was “aware of the challenges faced by those who participated in the scheme.”

The spokesperson added that the government is “thinking about what more can be done with consulting to implement measures to improve the shared ownership experience this year to improve service fee transparency, as well as consulting to ensure renters and tenants can better retain landowners.”