New Development Royal Canal Park D15

RandomAccess

Keithchap wrote: »

Does it make sense to ask Ballymore to put this in or to get it done after you've moved in?

I can't imagine they would agree to doing it.
You could speak with the plumbing sub contractor I guess.

I'm going to look at a few water softeners and installers tonight. It's possible to self install as well I understand.

RandomAccess

mrsdewinter wrote: »

The water is very hard, imo. As a long-time resident, I'd love to hear any solutions you have, something that can be retro-fitted.

There are some very compact models out there.
Have a look on screwfix.

janeybaby

Bandana boy wrote: »

We were told today that they would not be offering a rebate for refusing the kitchen .

We received an answer to this question directly from the rep in Ballymore in February. They stated there was a rebate of 4,500 euro paid after the sale of the house had gone through, if you did not want the option of a kitchen installed. Are they back pedaling on this option now as well?

Ballymore are keeping a close eye on this thread and we have heard the reason they are not honoring changes for people in this phase, is because their heads were wrecked from purchaser requests in previous phases.

Manion

janeybaby wrote: »

Ballymore are keeping a close eye on this thread and we have heard the reason they are not honoring changes for people in this phase, is because their heads were wrecked from purchaser requests in previous phases.

If they had an ounce of professionalism with regards handling change requests their heads wouldn't have been wrecked. You swear this was their first development.

janeybaby

Just wanted to say that we made a few suggestions re referencing HTB in our contracts among two other small requests - developers solicitors have dithered around for about two weeks but today have come back to say they will not agree to a HTB reference and will not be accommodating the other requests either. Now considering pulling the sale from serious concern not having the HTB referenced in the contract, the lack of compromise or show of good faith from Ballymore and the badgering from Sherry Fitz every second day.

Manion

Forget Sherryfitz, they are only badgering because they want their commission. I'd talk directly to Ballymore before pulling the sale. I had a chat with <mod snip> at the very start about accommodating changes.

I know ballymore are very concerned about their reputation, but this wont help. I'm saddened to hear that they have taken this course and are blaming people in the earlier phases. I feel personally there was a high degree of disorganization on their side when it came to handling change requests. Nearly none of our requests where actually done when it came to snagging so it was obviously a major headache to sort out afterwards.

andreionut

mrsdewinter wrote: »

The water is very hard, imo. As a long-time resident, I'd love to hear any solutions you have, something that can be retro-fitted.

One think that I know you need to do is to set the dishwasher settings for the correct water hardness and start using Calgon or a similar product.

We seem to be supplied by Leixip water plant.

Leixlip (North City & County)

mg/L CaCO3 = 150 - 300
eH (Clarke or English Degrees) = 10.5 - 21.9
dH (German Degrees) = 8.4 - 16.8
fH (French Degrees) = 15 - 30
Mmol CaCO3 = 1.5 - 3.0
American Hardness Degrees (ppm) = 150 - 300

Reference: http://www.sdcc.ie/services/environmental-health/water-services/drinking-water

janeybaby

Manion wrote: »

I feel personally there was a high degree of disorganization on their side when it came to handling change requests. Nearly none of our requests where actually done when it came to snagging so it was obviously a major headache to sort out afterwards.

Small requests not being accomodated that were previously, is very frustrating especially when people are paying more for this phase. So we really are thinking twice now if it's a sign of things to come - it's too much money to have to put up with this crap and not even have the security of the HTB clause in our contracts at the end of it.

Manion

andreionut wrote: »

One think that I know you need to do is to set the dishwasher settings for the correct water hardness and start using Calgon or a similar product.

We seem to be supplied by Leixip water plant.


Reference: http://www.sdcc.ie/services/environmental-health/water-services/drinking-water

Looking here it appears to be entirely possible that the new development is not served by the same reservoir at the existing apartments. Your site mentioned blended supply but it's a South county Dublin site.

http://www.dublincity.ie/sites/default/files/content/WaterWasteEnvironment/DrinkingWater/WaterQuality/RecentWaterQualityMonitoringResults/Documents/DCC_WSA_Layout_2012.pdf

http://www.dublincity.ie/main-menu-services-water-waste-and-environment-your-drinking-water-managing-our-water-supplies/where

Bandana boy

janeybaby wrote: »

We received an answer to this question directly from the rep in Ballymore in February. They stated there was a rebate of 4,500 euro paid after the sale of the house had gone through, if you did not want the option of a kitchen installed. Are they back pedaling on this option now as well?

Ballymore are keeping a close eye on this thread and we have heard the reason they are not honoring changes for people in this phase, is because their heads were wrecked from purchaser requests in previous phases.

Yes , we were told no rebate for not using their kitchen , I am challenging this but they seemed quite firm.
To be honest its really unprofessional and even more so when their Kitchen supplier is so difficult to deal with .

sunshine135

janeybaby wrote: »

Just wanted to say that we made a few suggestions re referencing HTB in our contracts among two other small requests - developers solicitors have dithered around for about two weeks but today have come back to say they will not agree to a HTB reference and will not be accommodating the other requests either. Now considering pulling the sale from serious concern not having the HTB referenced in the contract, the lack of compromise or show of good faith from Ballymore and the badgering from Sherry Fitz every second day.

Just to let you guys know on HTB scheme.
We bought the house in the previous phase (autumn 2016), the house is currently building built. We didn't have HTB in our contract, but we already applied to Revenue, submitted the forms and got accepted no problem for 5%. It's thoughtful for you to try to add the clause to the contract, however I understand where Ballymore solicitors are coming from. If you read about HTB, firstly you may be not approved for a full 5% (for example if you didn't pay enough taxes) and even if you are approved for HTB for certain amount, Revenue may change the actual amount paid to the developer at the end (for example if your LTV is <70%). Vague and new as HTB is, it doesn't seem Ballymore are making difficulties for you getting the grant and I'd think that other development companies would also have objections adding HTB to the contracts.
Anyways so far it seems that as long as you paid enough taxes and meet all conditions, Revenue is processing HTB requests no problem.

About the house changes - we asked for several small changes and I have to say we have good experience so far (with exception of charges on kitchen changes which seem irrationally high).
It's a bumper that Ballymore makes difficulties with house changes for the new phase. Fingers crossed they soften up on this.

sunshine135

tippmon wrote: »

Does anyone recall the exact detail of the loan approval provisions entered into their contracts? We are going through the contract agreement process now and while they will accept the law society clause re subject to approval; they are requiring the inclusion of an amendment to that clause that essentially allows them to require us (after 4 weeks notice) to declare the contract unconditional i.e. make it impossible to reclaim our deposit if anything goes wrong with our approval. Has this been other people's experience? Have Ballymore issued such notices?

There has been some reference in discussions to this not being required until after the roof stage. Does anyone already in a Heron remember approximately how long it was from roof stage to starting snagging?

Thanks

Hi,
We bought the house in the previous phase and we had this clause in our contract. The clause was saying that on the roofing stage Balymore will send us a 4weeks notice to claim the contract unconditional, which we accepted. This should give you enough security as you should be able to arrange your Loan offer from the bank in 4weeks (assuming you will get Approval in principle first) and Loan offer is valid 3 or 6 months (depending on the bank... and the 3-month can be usually renewed for another 3months). Good luck.

janeybaby

sunshine135 wrote: »

Vague and new as HTB is, it doesn't seem Ballymore are making difficulties for you getting the grant and I'd think that other development companies would also have objections adding HTB to the contracts.Anyways so far it seems that as long as you paid enough taxes and meet all conditions, Revenue is processing HTB requests no problem.

I take your points and am not suggesting that they are making difficulty for us getting access to the HTB scheme, as we have already qualified for it. The point is that this scheme is in it's infancy and if further down the line, a situation or difficulty should arise with the house build/house purchase there is absolutely no reference that part of the funding was provided through the help to buy scheme. I have just spoken to somebody who was successful with getting this clause added to their contract so it is workable legally.

sunshine135

janeybaby wrote: »

I take your points and am not suggesting that they are making difficulty for us getting access to the HTB scheme, as we have already qualified for it. The point is that this scheme is in it's infancy and if further down the line, a situation or difficulty should arise with the house build/house purchase there is absolutely no reference that part of the funding was provided through the help to buy scheme. I have just spoken to somebody who was successful with getting this clause added to their contract so it is workable legally.

Possibly I still don't understand what exact clause is being tried to add to the contract. But if I understand correctly, HTB fund will be only released from Revenue after you claim it, at the same time as Bank releases the funds to the developer (and for people who signed the contract by end-2016 - paid directly to the buyer after sale is finalised)?

If anything goes wrong before that, your withdrawal before this stage will not affect your HTB grant. Depending on the reason of the fall out, you may possibly loose the deposit you paid by signing the contract or - in case of returnable deposit clause - the deposit should be returned to you until 20days from the roofing stage.

athtrasna

Please keep HTB discussion to the HTB thread. Thanks

fret_wimp2

Regarding changes to the houses:
We purchased a phase 2 house.
Certain changes were allowed but we had to work with the contractors directly, i.e. its not done through Ballymore.

We also had to pay the contractors directly for the changes before they would make them, as they had been bitten before by people making changes and not paying for them as they were not in the contract. This meant that i got a call on a monday saying they would begin work that afternoon and I had to make my way up to Ashtown with payment, otherwise the changes wouldnt happen.

There was no changing some things, such as the paint.

I got the impression that changes were a big annoyance to Ballymore and they are tired of accommodating them.


Regarding HTB:
Our solicitor has been in touch with Listons, who are the solicitors for Ballymore.
The concensus is that there is no requirement for mention of the scheme in the contract. If you qualify, the money is paid to the developer and will be credited off your final balance.


Regarding Sherry Fitz
All bets are off, they know nothing.
They told us that the kitchen floor was included.
They told us the color would match that in the show house.
When probed for any detail on service company, whats covered, what is not, warranties etc, they had nothing.
Only believe what is in the contract and what Ballymore say.

Sherry Fitz add zero value to Ballymore, they literally take peoples names and take a cut.

Manion

Funny story, about a month after moving in I get contacted by Mc Anarney Construction with an invoice for works carried out on the property. However, I never requested they do any work and the work described was not carried out. I pointed this out and got a rather irate phone call about it. I asked how they had my details and I'd never agreed to any work.

I saw them walking up and down the road outside peoples homes trying to figure out which house they had installed double doors or what not in. I got the strong impression from Jason afterwards that it was the responsibility of the subcontractors to keep track of which house they did what in, but the the Carpenters had the view ballymore was keeping track.

Long and short, I wouldn't believe any of that playing the victim nonsense about people not paying for work done. They want the money up front because they know themselves they are feicless.

minkey

Hi All

Thanks to all the contributors to this thread. We have been in our new house for the past 2 months almost and I just want to share some of my experiences.

I have to say we are very happy so far. We got some great tips on here but have found Ballymore themselves very good to deal with in general throughout the process

Measurements Flooring and Blinds. If you are getting carpets/flooring and blinds the people you go with will need to measure themselves. Ballymore had no problem letting installers measure prior to key exchange, you could organise around the time of your snagging. Downstairs the skirting boards are left tacked on so the floor people can install. In our case all the doors had to be shaved and reattached by the carpenter, there is a cost associated with this. We got the onsite carpenter to do this, and it was a reasonable charge per door. Also on the ground floor the skirting boards had to be reattached . You can do this yourself, but we got the carpenter to do it so it included gluing nailing and caulking. Price was reasonable , but unexpected as I thought Ballymore should have done it after floors were installed

Stairs. We were interested in finding out would it be possible to have the stairs left with a varnished finish, but it turns out the wood/timber was not really nice enough for this, so its similar to showhouse.

Tap outside. We had ordered and paid for one, but it wasn't there at snagging, however it was rectified immediately.

As previous poster mentioned , best to contact Ballymore directly regarding changes, and be prepared to pay for everything. At the time we purchased there was no mention of a kitchen rebate if you wanted your own kitchen.

I just wanted to add, there seem to be issues with the kitchen for some people on this thread, we have had no issues at all and I have to say I have found the finish to be of a high stand in all areas of the house including the kitchen. I did find they were slow to respond to mails alright, but we didn't really get anything changed too much, so it was handy enough for them, however I know that was not others experience.

Broadband--- now this was probably by biggest bugbear. It took a month for us to get connected, but I had expected that from all the earlier posts, and to be fair I was worried it might take a bit longer. We seem to get good speeds from Vodafone, but Eir I reckon would be no different as its the same infrastructure
Also house is wired Cat5, might be worth the extra charge for some people to futureproof to go to Cat6, but I didn't bother myself

Water I think is a bit hard. Im not sure what can be done with that, other posters have mentioned getting hard water softener device, but I dont find it too bad.

Heating The house is always lovely and warm, but I have not received my first energy bill yet We have just left the setting in the control panel to leave the heat pump on all the time (or twice a day), then adjust the Thermostats on each floor to change the temp, this seems to be the recommended way.

Im looking forward to seeing if I get much sunlight into the back garden. It probably a bit early in the year yet to judge, but hopefully there will be a little bit of light anyway to get some plants bedded in.

If anyone has specific questions PM me and I can share some experiences, but overall we are pleased with our purchase and have not noticed anything that I would call a dealbreaker. Yes we were worried about having a management company and the fees involved plus the parking situation is not great, but we knew that from the start.

Good luck to all my neighbours and I hope everyone manages to get all their issues solved. I think spring has finally arrived today at Royal Canal Park

Minkey

googlewhack

We moved in to our house this week and we're very happy with it too!

The only thing that's not great is the road traffic noise coming into the house. It's a steady low rumble. I'm wondering if anyone has had any success in remedies for this? We're thinking of having secondary glazing installed at the moment.

cronos

Curious what direction people laid there the floor in each room.

Also curious what type/style/price people paid for tiles in the halway/kitchen.

One more thing would be what people got for carpet in terms of brand/color/price etc...

beartooth

What's is people's calculation of the service charge on the heron? €2,100?

fret_wimp2

cronos wrote: »

Curious what direction people laid there the floor in each room.

Also curious what type/style/price people paid for tiles in the halway/kitchen.

One more thing would be what people got for carpet in terms of brand/color/price etc...

+1

cronos

beartooth wrote: »

What's is people's calculation of the service charge on the heron? €2,100?

Where did you get that number from? Mine was 964 euro for a year. Had to pay for a full year on transferring money for the house.

beartooth

cronos wrote: »

Where did you get that number from? Mine was 964 euro for a year. Had to pay for a full year on transferring money for the house.

From the kingfisher management company document based on the sq footage of the house.

€964 appear in the contract, but there are different rates in section 2 of the kingfisher document "proposed service charge...."

cronos

beartooth wrote: »

cronos wrote: »

Where did you get that number from? Mine was 964 euro for a year. Had to pay for a full year on transferring money for the house.

From the kingfisher management company document based on the sq footage of the house.

€964 appear in the contract, but there are different rates in section 2 of the kingfisher document "proposed service charge...."

This is crazy if it's true!!!

beartooth

cronos wrote: »

This is crazy if it's true!!!

Not sure if I'm reading correctly. Happy for someone to set me straight.

PhoenixParker

The service charge for the houses is under €1000 per annum. I've thrown out the document now but the subsection of those expenses we're liable for comes out to that.

Based on the management company agm on Tuesday it'll be roughly the same next year.

Miss Lemon

We queried having to pay a full years service charge when we wouldn't own the house for a full year (and the way the timing looks like it is going may not have fully closed before year end). We didn't get to far with it though and let it go in the grand scheme of things.

Thanks to all the lovely posts from those who have already moved in. I'm sure there will be plenty of frustrating things which will need to be addressed as with any new house but we are very much looking forward to the move.

cronos

Miss Lemon wrote: »

We queried having to pay a full years service charge when we wouldn't own the house for a full year (and the way the timing looks like it is going may not have fully closed before year end). We didn't get to far with it though and let it go in the grand scheme of things.

Thanks to all the lovely posts from those who have already moved in. I'm sure there will be plenty of frustrating things which will need to be addressed as with any new house but we are very much looking forward to the move.

My understanding is that you get refunded in the following year for whatever you overpaid.

Like if you got the keys for your house and paid a year worth of service charges in say like now in March for example. The following years charge would subtract three months worth of service charge, for jan feb march

Miss Lemon

The terms certainly provide for you to be repaid amounts overcharged in relation to the previous year (which I understand can be the case anyways depending on the expenses incurred etc). The vendor solicitor did direct us to the refund provisions when we queried it- but it wasn't clear from anything I read that you would be considered to have been overcharged by virtue of the period of ownership being less than a full year.

As you say -we may in practice receive a refund but we thought it was a bit unclear and weren't banking on it. Happy to be contradicted on it though!