Buying a house 2012

branne2003 · 01-12-2012 9:02am

Hi guys. I've been keeping an eye on this board for the past 2 months and have found it so helpful and informative.

My fiance and I are in the process of buying a house. We appear to have as much qs possible sorted from our side. All was going well with the vendor until 2 weeks ago (ie they were prompt on agreeing sale price, got all sorted with their sol in jig-time, very accommodating with viewings, engineer, etc).

We were told that the house we are hoping to buy is in negative equity. The vendors have (apparently) bee. Offered AIP for a mortgage to build elsewhere. However, for the past 2 weeks, they've been awaiting a letter from their bank to allow them to sell this house. It was due to have arrived by last Thursday....no sign.

All parties involved are highly aware that we are buying the house on the grounds of us being on time for MIR. Our solicitor has suggested we don't instruct any more professionals until this letter comes. EA has said if the letter doesn't arrive by middle of next week, we should consider cutting our losses.

This is all very new to me (as a FTB). I'm wondering if anyone could advise me further? Could there be more to this story? Why would a bank (who are offering AIP) be so slow to process this letter?

witty username · 01-12-2012 11:55am

Indo this morning dropping hint that budget is going to reduce VAT on new builds from 13.5% to 9% to boost construction. Roll on wednesday...

tommyh1977 · 02-12-2012 11:43am

€800+ Vat for my Solicitor, he's good when he's in full swing, but needs an occasional kick in the rear to keep him moving:D

tommyh1977 · 02-12-2012 9:45pm

SuzieQCork wrote: »

Hi Everyone

Just looking for a bit of info. We've been sale agreed on a house(NAMA property) since Nov 6th. Deposit paid, Engineers report done, Banks Valuation report done. Letter of Offer/Loan Pack came this week to myself and solicitor. EA provided solicitor with name of vendors solicitors this week also and she says apparently the contracts are ready to go. The only thing we must actually do is check the boundaries when our solicitor gets the maps.
My question is roughly how long will the rest of the process be? Is it possible that we will be in before Xmas and will be able to avail of the MIR?

Is it NAMA or Receiver sale? If receiver sale I have one small bit of advice which caught us unexpected. We signed and exchanged contracts mid October, however when my Solicitor went to close sale there was a Revenue judgement lodged against the property just days prior. Now we are in limbo as vendor (receiver) and his solicitor try to get rid of this bloody judgement. If they can't get rid of it, it seems the receiver can walk away hand's swinging and leave us in a hole of a few grand with no property. Get you solicitor to go through the contracts and especially the specific vendor clauses added by the receiver. Best of luck.

thehamo · 03-12-2012 6:14pm

God this gets infuriating!! Basically got the lease title problem sorted. Now bank tells me that we need to draw down by the 14th to be in time for the MIR. No problem other than the fact that they haven't sent the bloody loan pack to the solicitor, even though we've signed and returned our copy and asked them to send it 3 times. I said it to the solicitor and he said that they could push to have it closed by the 14th but can't to anything with out the loan pack. So basically the bank are telling us to draw down ASAP yet dragging their heels

PaddyCar · 05-12-2012 12:23pm

Anybody happen to know when you would be expected to pay the solicitor their fee? Would it be prior to closing or shortly after?

leonidas83 · 05-12-2012 1:26pm

PaddyCar wrote: »

Anybody happen to know when you would be expected to pay the solicitor their fee? Would it be prior to closing or shortly after?

My understanding would be that it would be shortly after but it would depend on the agreement you have with the solicitor. Alot of solicitors are under pressure financially nowadays & would be grateful for the prompt payment

Ritchi · 05-12-2012 1:33pm

We are getting a 92% mortgage, and have paid a 10% deposit to the vendor. So when we draw down the mortgage, we have agreed that the solicitor takes their payment out of the 2% difference and will refund us the difference. Not sure if that helps you though as your circumstances may be different.

karlosrush · 05-12-2012 1:54pm

How long after signing contracts will the mortgage be drawn down?Im a FTB and due to sign contracts on Friday and have everything else sorted and I'm just wondering will I be able to avail of the MIR?I'm with BOI

bazwaldo · 05-12-2012 2:03pm

karlosrush wrote: »

How long after signing contracts will the mortgage be drawn down?Im a FTB and due to sign contracts on Friday and have everything else sorted and I'm just wondering will I be able to avail of the MIR?I'm with BOI

If your solicitor is ready, you have mortgage protection and house insurance policies, then your solicitor can request drawdown from BOI. This usually takes a week from start to finish if all is in order.

Dubchick81 · 05-12-2012 2:07pm

karlosrush wrote: »

How long after signing contracts will the mortgage be drawn down?Im a FTB and due to sign contracts on Friday and have everything else sorted and I'm just wondering will I be able to avail of the MIR?I'm with BOI

Soon as you have your closing date you can apply for the MIR... Yer current Mortgage App will become yer mortgage account number.. So ya need that, yer closing date, and yer date (month) of first mortgage payment to apply... Took less than a week for us to get a reply from ROL to say our app has been accepted and will be in effect as of January and will be backdated (We closed last week)

Twinkly · 05-12-2012 5:24pm

Hi all,

I thought it was rumoured that VAT on construction was to be reduced from 13.5% to 9%. Am I correct in thinking that this reduction did not materialise in the Budget?

Thanks,

micar · 05-12-2012 6:36pm

Am first time buyer with mortgage with BOI. Sale agreed on house with deposit paid. I have mortgage protection and home insurance ready - both with BOI for simplicity. Got building survey done.

The loan advisor in BOI is extremely frustrating to deal with. Got a reduction in price about 3 weeks ago. Had to get another offer letter which I got 2 weeks ago which i immediately signed and returned. Got call from person in BOI branch last Thursday saying that they needed revised valuation report. Branch got this yesterday. She rang and advised that it takes 24-36 hours for this to be up dated on the system for the mortgage department.

Solicitors got mortgage pack last Friday. I immediately signed the documents and got bank draft to cover rest of deposit which solicitors now has. Advised mortgage advisor of this and she asked to me to get solicitors to halt process until the revised valuation report has been rec'd.

I am desperately trying to draw down the loan before end of year. I now have just over 2 weeks left.

Is it possible to have this done before then?

Grover81 · 05-12-2012 7:21pm

micar wrote: »

Am first time buyer with mortgage with BOI. Sale agreed on house with deposit paid. I have mortgage protection and home insurance ready - both with BOI for simplicity. Got building survey done.

The loan advisor in BOI is extremely frustrating to deal with. Got a reduction in price about 3 weeks ago. Had to get another offer letter which I got 2 weeks ago which i immediately signed and returned. Got call from person in BOI branch last Thursday saying that they needed revised valuation report. Branch got this yesterday. She rang and advised that it takes 24-36 hours for this to be up dated on the system for the mortgage department.

Solicitors got mortgage pack last Friday. I immediately signed the documents and got bank draft to cover rest of deposit which solicitors now has. Advised mortgage advisor of this and she asked to me to get solicitors to halt process until the revised valuation report has been rec'd.

I am desperately trying to draw down the loan before end of year. I now have just over 2 weeks left.

Is it possible to have this done before then?

This sounds eerily simlar to what we're going through - including having the reduction in sale price and requirement to support this with a letter from a valuator. Because of additional issues surrounding the leasehold, the process was already drawn out which meant we had to provide additional updated financial documents.

One thing that has worked for us so far to speed things along, if you require any updates on progress from the branch call in in person if possible as this will help put the pressure on and also ease any fears you have. It sounds like if all goes well from here you should be able to draw down the loan in time once you can organise the signing of contracts between your solicitor and the vendor's solicitor promptly.

We're hopefully in the final run ourselves with the aim of having the cheque issued on Friday, but are still awaiting BOI mortgages to say they're completely statisfied with everything (the branch says they are, but this hasn't meant a whole lot in the past!)

micar · 05-12-2012 7:31pm

Grover81 wrote: »

This sounds eerily simlar to what we're going through - including having the reduction in sale price and requirement to support this with a letter from a valuator. Because of additional issues surrounding the leasehold, the process was already drawn out which meant we had to provide additional updated financial documents.

One thing that has worked for us so far to speed things along, if you require any updates on progress from the branch call in in person if possible as this will help put the pressure on and also ease any fears you have. It sounds like if all goes well from here you should be able to draw down the loan in time once you can organise the signing of contracts between your solicitor and the vendor's solicitor promptly.

We're hopefully in the final run ourselves with the aim of having the cheque issued on Friday, but are still awaiting BOI mortgages to say they're completely statisfied with everything (the branch says they are, but this hasn't meant a whole lot in the past!)

In between the last few weeks, I've also had to provide up to date financial documents and payslips. Again, I brought into the BOI the day after being asked.

I just hope the changes in the PRSI does not throw a spanner in the works. The way I see it, if the mortgage is drawn down before end of year,then I can avail of MIR but I'll have to pay property tax. If mortgage is not drawn down, then I don't get MIR and will won't have to pay the property tax.

Either way, it's financially in my interest to get drawn down before end of year.

I'll be onto the phone to her in the morning. If no luck, then I'll be heading into her in the afternoon.

karlosrush · 05-12-2012 11:31pm

Micar,FTB are exempt from paying the property tax for 3 years

overthebridge · 06-12-2012 3:25am

Hi there - Hope I'm posting this in the right thread....

We have an offer on our house at the moment. Is it permissable to ask for some form of proof that the potential buyer has mortgage approval before we accept an offer.

Marcusm · 06-12-2012 8:38am

overthebridge wrote: »

Hi there - Hope I'm posting this in the right thread....

We have an offer on our house at the moment. Is it permissable to ask for some form of proof that the potential buyer has mortgage approval before we accept an offer.

It's permissible to ask for Her grandmother's birth cert. it's advisable to check financial status prior to excluding other offers.

TheDriver · 06-12-2012 12:44pm

maybe but I don't have any official approval but my job will tell you I will have no problems (bank told me this) and also my savings however I am not going to show my cards to any seller.

thehamo · 06-12-2012 1:06pm

overthebridge wrote: »

Hi there - Hope I'm posting this in the right thread....

We have an offer on our house at the moment. Is it permissable to ask for some form of proof that the potential buyer has mortgage approval before we accept an offer.

Perfectly acceptable. It's foolish to put a deposit in a house and apply for approval and not get it. We lost out on a house because of this, went sale agreed on a different house. 1 month later original house was back in market because the other couple didn't get approval. The seller of the house doesn't want to have a load of messing around either, they want to be confident that the sale will go through effortlessly

Ritchi · 06-12-2012 1:51pm

TheDriver wrote: »

maybe but I don't have any official approval but my job will tell you I will have no problems (bank told me this) and also my savings however I am not going to show my cards to any seller.

You don;'t need to let them know how much you are approved for. Just a simple letter from the bank stating that you are approved for the amount that you have bid, doesn't have to say you are approved for X amount more too.

killers1 · 06-12-2012 1:58pm

A simple letter from the bank/broker saying 'I confirm that Joe/Jane Bloggs has sufficient mortgage approval in place to purchase (address) for the agreed price of €X amount' will suffice. No need to get in to loan amounts, deposit amounts etc as it's none of the vendors business..

dublin8681 · 06-12-2012 3:26pm

Hi, when I was viewing houses and made couple of offers there was in fact one estate agent who asked us for proof of loan offer so maybe just ask to see a copy with bidders name and stating they are approved but obviously they can black out any personal info and info of amount of approval. If they are serious this should be no problem.

overthebridge wrote: »

Hi there - Hope I'm posting this in the right thread....

We have an offer on our house at the moment. Is it permissable to ask for some form of proof that the potential buyer has mortgage approval before we accept an offer.

micar · 06-12-2012 3:49pm

karlosrush wrote: »

Micar,FTB are exempt from paying the property tax for 3 years

only if the house is bought in 2013. I'd rather have it bought in 2012 and get the MIR and pay the property tax rather then get it in 2013 with no MIR and not having to pay the property tax for 3 years.

micar · 06-12-2012 7:14pm

micar wrote: »

In between the last few weeks, I've also had to provide up to date financial documents and payslips. Again, I brought into the BOI the day after being asked.

I just hope the changes in the PRSI does not throw a spanner in the works. The way I see it, if the mortgage is drawn down before end of year,then I can avail of MIR but I'll have to pay property tax. If mortgage is not drawn down, then I don't get MIR and will won't have to pay the property tax.

Either way, it's financially in my interest to get drawn down before end of year.

I'll be onto the phone to her in the morning. If no luck, then I'll be heading into her in the afternoon.[/QUOTE

Revised valuation report still not updated. BOI mortgage dept are so busy that they are taking days before the system is updated. Even my last two payslips are not updated and these were brought into branch last Friday.

Loan advisor said that that contacts I signed last Friday can be sent to vendors solicitors. My solicitors doing this today.

However, loan advisor advised that draw down cheques will be be issued up to 14th December. Did not realise the implications of this and tried to call her to clarify this!!!!! Am hoping that I got this wrong.

Therefore, I need to get my solicitors to draw down cheque early next week. I'll avail of MIR if cheque cashed before 31/12/2012.

Time is tight!!!!!!!

Bigcheeze · 06-12-2012 10:20pm

micar wrote: »

only if the house is bought in 2013. I'd rather have it bought in 2012 and get the MIR and pay the property tax rather then get it in 2013 with no MIR and not having to pay the property tax for 3 years.

Draw down the mortgage in 2012. Close the sale in 2013. Win win!

Marcusm · 06-12-2012 10:26pm

Bigcheeze wrote: »

Draw down the mortgage in 2012. Close the sale in 2013. Win win!

I thought the funds had to be drawn down and paid over to the owner/developer?

It's certainly what the Revenue thinks it means..

What is the position if I take out a loan in 2013 or later?
Home Loans taken out in 2013 or later do not qualify for mortgage interest relief. Tax relief is available in respect of interest paid on a qualifying loan, taken out on or after 1 January 2004 and on or before 31 December 2012, which was used to purchase, repair or improve a qualifying residence. Taken out prior to 31 December 2012 means that the loan has been drawn down and used by you on the qualifying residence (e.g. purchase of site plus building costs) before that date.

Lenny · 06-12-2012 10:38pm

I had rang the revenue about the MIR a few weeks ago,
I did not really understand the terminology of draw, drawdown etc.
I had asked the girl does the house have to be purchased in 2012, and she had told me the mortgage has to be drawn before 31/12/12. so my understanding is that the money has to be withdrawn from the bank.

I have gotten a date of 07/01/13 as a closing date of sale <- saves me sending you a pm Killian

We are hopefully going to draw down on the 10/12/12. so we should have made our first mortgage payment before we actualy have the house. Just praying everything goes to plan as its been 10 weeks ago we vied the house, and we have had circumstances change just after applying for the mortgage.

But I am now hoping that if it all goes smoothly from here, we can avail of the MIR and also not have to pay the propery tax for 3 years as the property won't be changed into our names until january,

Marcusm · 06-12-2012 10:49pm

Lenny wrote: »

I had rang the revenue about the MIR a few weeks ago,
I did not really understand the terminology of draw, drawdown etc.
I had asked the girl does the house have to be purchased in 2012, and she had told me the mortgage has to be drawn before 31/12/12. so my understanding is that the money has to be withdrawn from the bank.

I have gotten a date of 07/01/13 as a closing date of sale <- saves me sending you a pm Killian
We are hopefully going to draw down on the 10/12/12. so we should have made our first mortgage payment before we actualy have the house. Just praying everything goes to plan as its been 10 weeks ago we vied the house, and we have had circumstances change just after applying for the mortgage.

But I am now hoping that if it all goes smoothly from here, we can avail of the MIR and also not have to pay the propery tax for 3 years as the property won't be changed into our names until january,

My quote was from a Revenue leaflet issued in September 2012 so is fairly recent (see final para here http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/leaflets/tax-relief-source-mortgage-interest-relief.html#section3 )

It would be worth your while chasing this up; IF it is the case that you are not entitled to the higher FTB MIR and you have notified your solicitor that you are looking for it, you may need to put him/her on notice that you will need to establish your position before proceeding. THis would be worth thousands, depending on your loan level.

micar · 06-12-2012 11:00pm

Lenny wrote: »

I had rang the revenue about the MIR a few weeks ago,
I did not really understand the terminology of draw, drawdown etc.
I had asked the girl does the house have to be purchased in 2012, and she had told me the mortgage has to be drawn before 31/12/12. so my understanding is that the money has to be withdrawn from the bank.

I've told that the draw down chq has to be cashed before 31/12/2012. In this case, the sols need the cheq before x-mas.

Buying a house 2012

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