We can't seem to buy a house!

branne2003

Long winded story which I will attempt to keep short....

Started looking into buying a house last Spetember when we heard MIR was to be gotten rid of. Put a bid in on a house which was accepted swiftly. We made it very clear from the outset that we needed to have purchased the house by December to avail of MIR. Come January (after a lot of waiting, empty promises from EA etc), we were informed that there was a negative equity issue on the vendors behalf and they were having difficulty getting their bank to allow them to sell. Having incurred some solicitor and engineers fees, we cut our losses and walked away.

The following month, we came across another house. Put in a bid, and after some to-ing and fro-ing, it was accepted. We expressed our wish for the sale to be as fast as possible and not to be dragged out in any way. The EA put it in writing (not that it's worth the paper it's written on) that this was our wish, and also that of the vendor.

It soon came to our attention that there were bedrooms upstairs in the house with no planning permission. We were advised to have our engineer come and examine the house to ensure there were no other issues. He assured us that the house is "a great house" but the bedrooms (as well as a wall which was never built at the entrance and some trees which were never planted) were an issue.

It was put to the vendor that they would need to apply to the County Council for retention. This consists of sending a form to the council and awaiting the response. The EA, solicitor and engineer for the vendor were all suggesting they had never heard of this form and that such a thing didn't exist. Our engineer kindly forwarded a copy of the form to them.

Last week, the EA was away. Before she left, she expressed her delight at having received the form and told us the vendor would send it off. Yesterday (having returned from holidays), the EA called us in to her office to inform us that the vendor is 8 months pregnant; that she doesn't want to be too forceful with the vendor, but that the vendor was "afraid" to send the form to the council. The vendor is "fearful that the council will come out and make her build a wall straight away". The EA asked us how much of a discount we would be looking for in order to build the wall and plant the trees ourselves. We gave a price.

The EA then asked if we would proceed, with a discount on the price, without the letter from the County Council! I'm in no way willing to risk this as this is to be our first house, and we could want to sell in years to come. I don't want to be stuck in a situation where we can't sell for any reason.

Before we knew of the vendors reluctance, we had put it to them that we would be happy to engage in a caretakers agreement (there has been nobody living in the house since last year). They rejected this.

To me, this is all very fishy. The vendor has apparently been told by the EA and her engineer that the council won't have an issue with anything but she still won't send in the form. Her solicitor (who according to our solicitor is normally extremely efficient) is very slow about responding to correspondence from our solicitor.

We are now four months into this process. We, again, have incurred solicitors fees and engineers fees. We are reluctant to walk away because of this. However, I am beginning to get the feeling that this vendor could have no intention of selling this house......although I have no idea as to why!

I see my attempt to keep this short has failed miserably!!!!!!!! Apologies in advance. I'd greatly appreciate thoughts on this situation!

jester77

branne2003 wrote: »

We are now four months into this process. We, again, have incurred solicitors fees and engineers fees. We are reluctant to walk away because of this.

Silly reason not to walk away. For the sake of a few thousand or whatever it costs you are putting yourselves into a precarious position regarding the planning permission on the house. It's small change in the grand scheme of things, I would forget about the house and move on.

foggy_lad

Has the council already rejected a retention application for changes to this property?

branne2003

jester77 wrote: »

Silly reason not to walk away. For the sake of a few thousand or whatever it costs you are putting yourselves into a precarious position regarding the planning permission on the house. It's small change in the grand scheme of things, I would forget about the house and move on.

I hear you jester! At the moment, it's a lot of money to have incurred but in the grander scheme of buying a house, it's a drop in the ocean.

branne2003

foggy_lad wrote: »

Has the council already rejected a retention application for changes to this property?

That's one we hadn't thought of foggy lad. We certainly haven't been told that this is the situation. From my research (and that of the engineer), the only record of the house with the County Council is the original planning permission whcih was sought and granted.

pwurple

You may actually have no choice if there is a mortgage involved, which I assume there is as it's a first house.

We have been in a very similar position before. No planning permission for an extension on the house. When it came to the mortgage, the valuer that the bank appoints will check for planning permission. The value of a 2 bed house is obviously fairly different to a 5 bed house, and if there is no planning, then on paper that is still a 2 bed. If the valuer doesn't give a value close to your purchase price, you will not be able to draw down your mortgage. We had to wait for the extension in question to get the planning retention. It took 3 months, we negotiated a discount on the price based on our expenses for that delay (additional rent etc).

If they don't get the planning permission sorted, you may not be able to get a mortgage on it. Check the terms on your letter of offer.

Bigcheeze

How old is the non-compliant work to the house ? I thought if it was more than 7 years it was exempt from any enforcement.

Chris_5339762

Nope, I know of one with a garage that had been built for 20 years but in the wrong place. Retention planning still required before the house could sell.

What happened when we were selling our hellhole was this. The buyers engineer did his survey and discovered that the cheapskate who built the house in 2002 decided to do his own thing and put the gate where he wished and the house also. I have no idea how this wasn't found out when our surveyor worked for us in 03. Anyway. We wanted to sell, so we got retention planning which took a couple of months and cost the retention fee and our own architect fee. Its doable, just a pain when things get held up. Hope it works out for you.

L1011

I suspect all these excuses for the reluctance are that they're absolutely damn sure they won't get retention permission. Don't walk - run.

D3PO

Mayo Gurl wrote: »

What happened when we were selling our hellhole was this. The buyers engineer did his survey and discovered that the cheapskate who built the house in 2002 decided to do his own thing and put the gate where he wished and the house also. I have no idea how this wasn't found out when our surveyor worked for us in 03. Anyway. We wanted to sell, so we got retention planning which took a couple of months and cost the retention fee and our own architect fee. Its doable, just a pain when things get held up. Hope it works out for you.

Your surveyor should have professional indemnity insurance. If it cost you money you should have been seeking it back from him/her by claiming on their policy.