Flemington Lane Balbriggan

ninimac

Hi there

myself and my partner have been trying to buy a house for the last year but are finding it very difficult to get ourselves on to the property ladder. We have been offered a 2 bedroom house in Flemington Lane, Balbriggan under the affordable housing scheme for €197,000.

Can anybody advise us on what the area is like? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Branners

i'm from Balbriggan meself and it seems to be a grand area, bit of a conrete jungle with plenty of houses, but its the same everywhere, haven't heard any bad reports on the estates up there anyway, go for it.

bullrunner

was going to buy up there meself...but its turning into a bit of a troublesome place so am buying elsewhere!!

Moonbeam

This might help you out a bit -
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054847397

Do you know which estate the house is in?

Bluetonic

bullrunner wrote:

..but its turning into a bit of a troublesome place so am buying elsewhere!!

Source?

idontknowmyname

I've lived in Balbriggan all of my life and Flemington Lane is not a troublesome area, like was suggested and it's not a big sprawl like at the end of Hamlet Lane. On the left hand side, yes there are 2 or 3 new estates but nothing major. To the right it's all fields, detached houses that have been there years and a fab view towards Drogheda direction. The lane is probably a mile or so long so I would certainly buy there if I had an opportunity.

dbnavan

I remember Flemington Lane, when it was a lane, lived there for 10 years about 10 years ago, a time when everyone knew everyone, was back there recently wouldnt know the place, its that built up.

Sorry just reminiscing.....

bullrunner

Bluetonic wrote:

Source?

friend in work who lives there

plus also have seen some negative threads about balbriggan on boards

Bluetonic

bullrunner wrote:

friend in work who lives there

plus also have seen some negative threads about balbriggan on boards

What sort of trouble has he seen? I'd be interested to know. How long had your friend lived there?

There is no topic in the world of boards which hasn't received negative as well as positive threads. Such is life.

Glass half empty person me thinks.

ninimac

Moonbeam,

The estate is Dun Saithne. Was up there last week and was very pleased with area. We've gone ahead and should be in by March/April:D

Thanks to everyone for replying.

sgarvan

ninimac wrote:

Moonbeam,

The estate is Dun Saithne. Was up there last week and was very pleased with area. We've gone ahead and should be in by March/April:D

Thanks to everyone for replying.

its a grand area, i lived down the road from it for about 20 years.

ninimac: if you play GAA, when you move in pop down to O'Dwyers. We are always looking for new players

Moonbeam

beside mount rochford which is lovely:)

Saw on the for sale sign for Dun Saithne that the sole selling agent in fingal country council.

as it says sole selling agent I presume they are not council houses but all affordable housing?

ninimac

sgarvan - Sorry I'm afraid I don't play GAA, but I'll pass the message to me boyfriend - he may be interested!

Moonbeam - all the houses facing out on to flemington lane are affordable housing. As far as I know - within the estate there will be a mixture of affordable and social housing.

sugark

Have you moved into your house yet on Flemington Lane? I bought one of these too but Fingal Co. Council seem to be moving at a snail's pace. Heard any news from them recently? All I here is next week... next week... have heard that for seven months now.

Moonbeam

2 of my friends bought up there too,houses are nice:)

umm sugark maybe ring them and follow up

billy1

I bought one of these houses as well in the affordable housing initiative.

Its very frustrating waiting. I believe that most councils are the same.

sugark

Have made lots of calls and just keep getting told next week... That first started in January.

Think it's just council's for you. Can't get too annoyed as they are lovely houses at a great price.

sugark

Contracts have arrived with my solicitor this morning! At last!

Not sure how long the rest of the process will take but at last something is happening. Happy days!!

seanos

Hm, mind me asking if you are in early numbers? (i.e. 1-5 house numbers or some such), or higher (15-25)?

From what I can gather, Fingal is currently doing snag lists, and soon as it's done their sending papers to respective solicitors. No word from mine yet, and I'd be in high 20s in so far as numbering, which seems to fit the theroy then.

I was told late Aug, early Sept.

sugark

Heydy Ho Neighbourino:)

I was told that they are doing houses 1 to 11 first (which is me) and then 12 to 38. This would be all the houses facing onto Flemington Lane.

Houses 1 to 11 have been finished by the builders since January so I guess they want to get these people's contracts sorted first.

Hopefully, now that the process has started, they will pick up speed and you won't be waiting too much longer. Believe me, I know what the frustration has been like.

I'll post if there's any further delay but should be in soon.

seanos

Ah right, makes sense alright.
I really do pity the builder, he's done damn good job, finished on schedule (houses high 20s have been more or less finished since early April), and Fingal only doing Snags now (so obviously fingal hasn't bought them all yet either).

Ah finished when finished, each extra month is more savings

sugark

As far as I knew Fingal had the keys for the first row of houses since March! Not sure if that's only 1 to 11 but they've had those keys for a long time now.

Talked to the foreman when I was first out there - he said the spec on these houses is amazing and that they spent three months longer on these than if they were a private build.

seanos

Ahh right.
Yeah, fairly impressed alright by site/houses in general, suprised at the quality of some elements (where you'd expect money/corners to be cut, they haven't).

Ah, didn't realise Fingal had keys for half houses, and that they had them that long.

By the way, found out no management company for this estate either.

sugark

I guess Fingal are the management company. No management fees to pay anyway!

Can't wait to get out of my crummy flat and actually be in a house - with two bathrooms!!

billy1

Hello Neighbours,

Got my contracts today aswell. At last the wait is coming to an end.

I hope all goes smoothly. Roll on the housewarmings!:)

sugark

Many congrats!

Must do some work and stop looking at furniture web sites!

Checked with Fingal today - contracts get signed, then they'll call to organise snag list once they get contracts back. After that, hopefully it's not too long until Moving Day.

seanos

Hm, that doesn't sound right...
Sign contract before do snag list?
I believe should do snag list before signing...?

sugark

I thought that was a bit odd too but didn't question it in all my excitement. I presumed I'd be snagging before signing too.

Will see what my solicitor says about it.

billy1

I do not think it makes too much difference, the contract can be signed subject to the snag items being done.

I wouldn't be too worried about it.

sugark

Thanks Billy1. I'm signing contracts this afternoon so it's all going ahead.

seanos

Just got call, apparently solicitor has contracts now, lot quicker than I expected really.

sugark

Congrats! Hopefully you'll be in soon.

People have moved in to the estate already but not into the houses facing on to Flemington Lane. I'm hoping to snag next week and close soon after that.

You might want to check my thread on the garden. Would say you'll have the same issue.:)

seanos

heh, nah they only planted grass in my garden not too long ago - so it's fine (nothing strimmer won't handle).

You may be able to mention it on the snag, since it was adverted 'landscaped garden' or whatever the marketspeak BS for a bit of grass is, who knows

I'd be curious if any 'big' issues on snag - from what I saw doubt it, still be interesting (also how long from time of snag till they fix etc).

Best of luck anyhows.

sugark

Am snagging this Friday so I'll post if there's anything major you should watch for.

Doubt if there will be though - the council already snagged when they took the keys from the builders so if there is anything I'm sure it'll only be cosmetic.

Valley

I read your message about the Affordable Housing in Flemington Lane in Balbriggan. I got my approval from Fingal County Council in March 2006 and I haven't received any information about a house yet. I have phoned Fingal County Council numerous times to try to find out what houses are coming up under the scheme but they won't tell my anything. Can you tell me how long you were waiting for the house in Balbriggan? When did you get your approval? Were you on the local list for Balbriggan or the general list? I really want to get a house soon but don't know where to get this information. I am from Skerries so would love a house in that area. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Val.

seanos

Well, there are a couple of schemes, main ones being :
Shared Ownership
Addordable Housing Scheme
Addordable Housing Initiative

The Ones being discussed here are the latter, Addordable Housing Initiative.
With these, there is no waiting lists or otherwise, it's just a normal purchase (except your buying from the local authority at a reduced rate - there are some other conditions).

Sounds like you enquired about the affordable housing scheme, in which case there is waiting lists and what not.

Scheme : http://www.fingalcoco.ie/LivingInFingal/Housing/AffordableHousing/
Initiative: http://www.fingalcoco.ie/LivingInFingal/Housing/AffordableHousingInitiative/

edit:
For information try contacting Fingal, I've found them very good.
Also, look at the oasis.gov.ie site.
Note, because each Local authority has it's own rules/conditions attached to Affordable housing, the information on oasis.gov.ie won't be fully accurate depending on the authority you are applying to.

enniser

just googling dun saithne there and cant believe what Im reading here! I am buying a house in dun saithne view and are finally getting somewhere with the council aswell.

seanos, can you tell me how you got on with your snag cos we should be doing ours soon?

seanos

It's sugark who is doing his/her snag today apparently - I just signed Monday, so snagging end July/early August methinks.

enniser

ah right thanks, will look out for sugark's response.

I only hope after 7 months of sitting idle there wont be much wrong with the house.

seanos

Doubt there'd be much wrong in all honesty, looking at site and quality, everything seems decent.
Also asked Fingal if their snaggers had run into any problems so far, and was told they didn't (Fingal apparently had their own architect on site most of the time also).

enniser

thats good news, should be gettting a call next week to hear what date we can snag the house. builders holidays are end of july so hopefully that doesnt affect snags getting done.

sugark

Hey there, got snag list back today from snagger and all went great. In fact, he said it was the shortest snag list he ever had to do on a new build!

I went out with him (so finally got to set foot in my new house!) and he was finished within the hour - he said he could find little wrong with the place. And he was a snagger I got recommended off boards.ie so it wasn't as if he was just being lazy. He said that the Fingal Co. Co. snag had obviously been well done and that there was very little left to do.

Apart from cosmetic things such as marks on the walls (which you would need a magnifying class to see anyway) there was one broken seal on a window. There's no keys for the internal doors provided and a lack of doorstops. One of the internal doors is a little loose and one is a little too tight.

That was pretty much it!

seanos

That's brillant, cheers for the information.
Nice to hear that you had little problems anyway - now to see how long the next legal leap takes.

sugark

Fingers crossed it won't be too much longer. My solicitor is just waiting for the land registry map - we can't close without it.

enniser

glad to hear they are only small things too. Our snag is hopefully getting done next week and was hoping there was nothing major that would take ages to fix.

seanos

Finally been told can snag, so snagging Tuesday afternoon.

enniser

well we got our snaglist back and alot of its cosmetic thank god. the bathroom however has a vent on the wall where you would normally put a shower head so that will have to be filled in etc. not great planning there
we wud also like to put a dishwasher in the kitchen but will have to get extra plumbing done and take out a press, dont know if any of ye have same idea or ways to get round this if you have??

billy1

Hi All,

I did my snags yesterday, but everything was fine. The guy who did the snags only charged me mileage as he could not put anything on the list!

They have done a very good job overall.

I wonder how long it will take until closing?

sugark

No idea when we're going to close as still waiting for some documents from Fingal.

If anyone closes, or is about to close, maybe you could post here?

Dors1976

Balbriggan.net is the local site and it's updated very often. New parents forum too. PM me if inteested!

Posy

Forgive my ignorance.. I'm currently languishing on the Fingal waiting list and wondering what are snags?