Selling to County Council

WeeCuppaCha

I accepted an offer from Donegal County Council on a rental property I own and have been sale agreed now since end June 2019.

In that time I (my solicitor) have had zero correspondence from them, despite numerous letters and emails to them.

From advice received on another forum, I contacted my estate agent last week who reckons that they are still intent on buying the house but are just slow to proceed. My solicitor also said that the process can be protracted when dealing with the council but couldn’t specify how long exactly. To date they have not even paid a deposit.

I have made allowances for summer holidays, both solicitors and council staff, however I am become increasingly anxious that the sale will not proceed, leaving me at the start of the whole process again and running the risk of a drop in the market by then. They have offered a fair price, little under asking, which I was happy to accept.

I am presently paying rent on my current house, mortgage on this empty house and trying to save some money towards a deposit on a future house of my own. Things are tight.

Has anyone here had any recent experience selling to a County Council? How long until the sale was closed? I’m concerned that 2019 budgets are running out and they might try to delay until 2020 and even worse might pull the pin altogether leaving me rightly in the proverbial.

Any advice or experience would be gratefully welcomed.

The_Conductor

Recent sale to Sligo Co. Co.- no particular issues with the sale, but still took from September 2018 to yesterday to finally complete- aka fully a year.
A sibling had a similar issue with a house in Renville in Galway that took over 18 months from start to finish- and a brother is currently in discussions with DCC regarding a terraced house he accepted an offer on last February. It seems to be the norm, rather than an exception.

WeeCuppaCha

Thanks for your reply The-conductor, was starting to feel like I was the only one out there.

A year to 18 months is brutal. I would have to rethink the whole thing if it could potentially drag on that long. On my solicitor’s advice, I got my estate agent to contact them this morning and they have agreed to “push it on” a bit. Right now, I’ll believe it when I see it.

I’m glad to hear you got sorted finally though! How did you manage to contain yourself for so long? Had the market value not increased in that time? I’m particularly thinking about the 18 month wait. That’s a very long time... Or maybe I’ve been watching too much American real estate programmes where they ‘close in 30 days’ 😬

irishlenny

Hi - I sold to MCC in Feb with sale closure about 4 months later. Maybe find out who is the solicitor on council side and have your solicitor touch base with them.

Cheers

WeeCuppaCha

irishlenny wrote: »

Hi - I sold to MCC in Feb with sale closure about 4 months later. Maybe find out who is the solicitor on council side and have your solicitor touch base with them.

Cheers

Thanks for this. It’s actually the Council’s solicitor that hasn’t replied to any correspondence. I’m gonna give it another couple of weeks to allow time for their latest promise of a “push on” and see where we are then.

4 months is really good going. Did you have to chase them at all or did the wheels turn smoothly?

CramCycle

Have you gotten any other offers? That's an insane timeframe. If you have other offers, while normally bad form, is there any reason you couldn't accept another one?

WeeCuppaCha

CramCycle wrote: »

Have you gotten any other offers? That's an insane timeframe. If you have other offers, while normally bad form, is there any reason you couldn't accept another one?

The house had been on the market for 4 weeks and the Council were the first to make an offer. I then went sale agreed, essentially removing the property from the market. I’m starting to regret that decision now to be honest.

I’m going to give them another couple of weeks and if no progress has been made I’ll seriously consider putting it back on the market at that point.

enricoh

Could you air bnb it for a few months n get a few quid in for the mortgage? It'd take the pressure off.

WeeCuppaCha

enricoh wrote: »

Could you air bnb it for a few months n get a few quid in for the mortgage? It'd take the pressure off.

This is something I considered, but unfortunately the house is situated in a different county from where I live so wasn’t a viable option for meeting guests, cleaning after them etc. Will just have to suck it up for now.

CramCycle

People get gazumped (is that the right spelling) all the time, and while normally it's frowned upon it happens. Have they paid a deposit, do you think you'd get more if you took it back and sold elsewhere. 18months of mortgage payments is alot if your not going to get more.

WeeCuppaCha

CramCycle wrote: »

People get gazumped (is that the right spelling) all the time, and while normally it's frowned upon it happens. Have they paid a deposit, do you think you'd get more if you took it back and sold elsewhere. 18months of mortgage payments is alot if your not going to get more.

No, they haven’t even paid a deposit. Not unusual for this county council according to the EA. Their offer was good, not far from full asking, but as you rightly say, when you factor in months of mortgage payments on an exorbitant BTL interest rate, it makes better sense to accept a lower offer.

The optimist in me, however, is hoping they’ll just come through and move on with things soon.

CramCycle

Any reason you can't leave it on the market until they pay a deposit?

WeeCuppaCha

CramCycle wrote: »

Any reason you can't leave it on the market until they pay a deposit?

Probably no reason at all actually now I think about it. I’m admittedly quite green to the world of property sales, but is this a normal course of action?

Thanks for your input, CramCycle, that will be my next course of action if nothing progresses in the next couple weeks.

CramCycle

I am not an expert but have bought in the last few years so there might be people who have better insight.

enricoh

WeeCuppaCha wrote: »

This is something I considered, but unfortunately the house is situated in a different county from where I live so wasn’t a viable option for meeting guests, cleaning after them etc. Will just have to suck it up for now.

I'm sure there's an oul dear nearby that'd do a bit of hoovering, hand over keys etc. Stick an add up in the local shop

The_Conductor

enricoh wrote: »

I'm sure there's an oul dear nearby that'd do a bit of hoovering, hand over keys etc. Stick an add up in the local shop

There is a hell of a lot more to it than handing over the keys and doing a bit of hoovering...........