Protected structure advice greatly appreciated

Thesomersarms

Hi Folks

Looking for a bit of advice here as unsure about what way to go on this.

Basically, elderly relative in nursing home, will not be returning home so house is sitting idle, house is a protected structure, relative has stated that she is happy for myself and my wife to move into home (along with our infant child) as we were in process of seeking to buy a new house as we have outgrown ours and she would not like to see her home sold on.

While it is a very kind gesture from relative we are very very wary of getting bogged down in planning and repair issues as house is very old, no renovations have been done, no central heating etc, house is a pre 63 and basically has been untouched in at least 40 years as relative health meant unable to keep up repair.

Our option is to decline offer and continue to look for house outside Dublin or having spoken to a builder relative of mine do repairs worth approx 30k k to make a few rooms liveable, and leave rest of house untouched, only structural work would possibly be on bathroom area to knock out plaster wall and make it a bigger space as toilets are tiny. Advantages of the house is area is close to central Dublin and great for commute to work and nice area, wouldn’t be paying rent just looking after upkeep and paying for repairs

Am i walking into something i should avoid as i dread getting bogged down with architects etc and issues arising with local authority etc, dear relative is of a different generation and believes they can mind their own business it’s her house and we are welcome to make it liveable etc I realise that’s not how it works and in the event of getting into difficulty with la for doing any sort of work i cannot envisage relative being in a position to deal with them as her health isn’t great and i imagine they will not deal with me as i do not own house and nothing in my name so I envisage running into difficulty there.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

BryanF

Research the Proteted structure status. Is it the facade or the whole building?

Angry bird

Submit a Section 57 declaration form to the Council planning section. This will inform you as to precisely what is protected and what is not, what repairs can be carried out without impact on what's protected and so on. It is free with a 12 week turnaround. The owner is the one that requests this. After that you can decide and if going with works, hire a conservation architect to give accurate advice.

Thesomersarms

Angry bird wrote: »

Submit a Section 57 declaration form to the Council planning section. This will inform you as to precisely what is protected and what is not, what repairs can be carried out without impact on what's protected and so on. It is free with a 12 week turnaround. The owner is the one that requests this. After that you can decide and if going with works, hire a conservation architect to give accurate advice.

Thanks a lot for replies folks, from looking into this further, all of the house is protected which means the smallest amount of work will require getting a conservation architect on board and with that I can see the whole process taking far longer and far more costly so have decided against it, someone said to me why do you think theres so many old houses around which go into ruin, the rules and cost of keeping these buildings standing is beyond the reach of most folk, it’s a shame as house will probably go into ruin which is what authorities don’t want however the rules they enforce makes that the likelier outcome.

Calahonda52

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