Currently buying/selling a house? How is it going? READ MOD NOTE POST #1

getoutadodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118933937#Comment_118933937

Had the same problem. In some of the rural towns I had hoped to move to there there is effectively zero rentals or a half a dozen at most. With the possibility, however remote, of making myself homeless I have abandoned the idea entirely. There is no rental market in this place. Less than 500 rentals in a city of 1.5 million is not a crisis...it's a non market. Frozen. I'm looking abroad now to sell up and retire to a normal market where I can easily rent initially so as to gauge a location before buying. In a way I'm relieved the screwed up Irish market made the decision for me and forced my hand. Fate. The price of healthcare on the public system (medication etc) sealed the deal. Adios!

Brock Turnpike

Hi all,

Anyone experienced similar to this? Been SA on a house for a while, and just had the survey carried out recently.

The house is an older house which has been renovated and extended. Part of the world included converting the attic to bedrooms. However, our surveyor has come back to say that the two rooms in the old attic space don't actually qualify as bedrooms as they have not got sufficient head room to meet the building regulations to class then as bedrooms. I wouldn't have picked up on this at all during the viewings I had in the property, and I would be tall enough. However, that isn't really an applicable test when it comes to building regulations :)

In essence our surveyor is saying that the house isn't actually a 4bed house. It's a two bed with a number of other rooms, none of which can be classified as a bedroom. He hinted this could potentially effect the banks valuation of the property of they only view it as a two bed.

Has anyone been through similar, or even if not, does anyone have any suggestions on what to do next?

Wait for the bank valuation to take place?

Request money off the agreed sale price?

Walk away?

If the bank valuation believes the valuation is correct, just accept the risk that we're buying a two bed and can use the two upstairs rooms as bedrooms?

TIA

LunaLoo

My friends were in exact same situation. The attic had been converted but the same as you they didn't meet building regulations more to do with no means of escape in case of fire blocking stairs as windows were all velux so they couldn't be counted as bedrooms, they weren't planning on using the room as bedroom but got solicitors.to say it and they had a few thousand knocked off price.

BAABAA96

Would it be strange to knock into potential neighbours and ask them about the area if considering putting a bid on a house? Or to ask them if they know anything that might have led the house to being sold?

fliball123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974028#Comment_118974028

Good luck with the move I hope your moving somewhere warmer. Life is too short to be waiting.

JimmyVik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118977485#Comment_118977485

If they didnt tell you that they werent rooms at the viewing or advertised it as a 4 bed house then they are conning you and I would walk away.

Most of the time when there is an attic cnversion that doesnt meet the habitable regulations it is stated that it is an attic room, not a bedroom, and that is explained to you at the viewing.

Not supplying that info is a con job.

tscul32

I was looking a house with two attic rooms used as bedrooms but sold as storage rooms + 2 downstairs bedrooms. There needs to be a room height of 2.4m over at least 50% of the floor area to qualify as a habitable room. But it was being sold as a 3 bedroom, second living room as optional bedroom.

Bank valuation may be lower but they are valued as what they should achieve on the open market so the 2 vs 4 bed thing might not matter if people would still buy at the advertised price.

Don't like that they were advertising as a 4 bed though. You should definitely query. Reality is though that if someone else is willing to pay then they donf need to discount your price.

Would you be happy to use the rooms as bedrooms. They're still the same size they were when you saw them.

As long as they're only not habitable from a head height perspective as opposed to being a fire risk then it wouldn't bother me too much.

youcancallmeal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118977485#Comment_118977485

It's a lot of hassle to get attic conversion rooms officially classified as habitable bedrooms. There are height and fire regulations(inc fire doors throughout entire house!) that must be met amongst other things. It seems like some estate agents/sellers will still advertise non-conforming attic conversions as a counting bedroom because if it's a cash buyer they probably won't care about whether regulations are met. Obviously if there is a mortgage and valuer involved then that changes everything.

I'd suggest get the bank to value it and if it the mortgage they're willing give you is way off the sale agreed price then negotiate with the vendor to bring the price down. The vendor may just say no and look for a cash buyer, in that case you're probably better off anyway as whoever buys it will never be able to have it officially valued as a 4 bed house.

kodak

Bank May have an issue if it’s flagged to them , esp. if you have a large family - they may question why you’re buying a 2 bed.

Valuation may not pick it up but ultimately the day you buy is the day you sell.. so you’ll be stuck with a “2 bed”.. if it’s headroom / volume the issue isn’t going to go away easily

Brock Turnpike

Thanks for all the replies/input. I think we're going to get the banks valuation done and see what they say. But it has definitely got us considering whether we should proceed or not.

There are fire regulation concerns over it, which is leading me to think we may have to walk away if we can't get them resolved easily (or get sufficient money off the price to cover the cost)

tscul32

Fire regs issues would put me off. The one we were looking at was a bungalow so not like you'd be stuck on a second storey roof in a fire.

iColdFusion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118981808#Comment_118981808

Do they have planning permission for the attic conversion? That could be a whole other can of worms for your bank plus im not sure what your house insurance would say if the worst happens with a fire and they found out you had been using a non complaint space as bedrooms, great way to void a claim.

I'd be approaching the estate agents, if it was falsely advertised as a 4 bed that's on them but obviously the owners know what they have done, id play dumb say your engineer has flagged that the attic bedrooms don't comply and ask them if they are going to fix this so they look into it or if you know a builder ask them to quote for it, id imagine its a 100k kinda job of completely re-roofing the house with a flatter pitch and some roof windows to get the head height - that should get the owners more open to talking about a reduction in price and you need to be clear that issue will be there for any other buyer also, mortgage or cash buyer it doesn't comply with building regs and the new owner would inherit that problem.

To be honest whoever did the attic conversion for the current owners probably told them how much it would cost to do it right and they chose not to do that but are now hoping to profit from that which isn't right.

JimmyVik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118981873#Comment_118981873

YEah wouldnt bother me at all if it was a bungalow and there were velux windows to get out of opposite the side with the door.

But any higher than a bungalow and it is a no for me from an escape point of view.

Munstermissy

Sale agreed since December, still no contract signed by purchasers. Advised EA I will put it back on market. EA told me market was softening!! Beyond sick of it now.

houseyhouse

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118996111#Comment_118996111

The market may be softening but prices are still well up since December

LunaLoo

Are the purchasers selling a house too and waiting on their purchasers to sign first? Sounds like the estate agent doesn't want to have to sell it again. Get your solicitor to put some pressure on purchasers to get contracts signed.

YellowRattle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974028#Comment_118974028

We decided to relocate to Spain too. Moving in June. One internal transfer and myself remote.

Cost of living the main reason. We just can’t do the semi d thing and rural is not for us either.

I left before in 2008 just before the crash. Can see the same things again. The frenzied housing market with prices far exceeding reality.

getoutadodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118997316#Comment_118997316

Good luck with the move. Don't rush any purchase. I spent a year previously in a resort town and scratch the skin and there are the same serious societal problems caused by low wages versus exorbitant housing costs. After signing a lease I soon discovered there was a squat encampment beside me with wretched people often junkied out all night. It was depressing. But I was mobile and so could move on without too much of a financial hit. I live extremely modestly here yet fifty percent of my monthly costs are now taken up by utilities (heating especially) and medication and paying for access to a supposedly public (lol) health service. Both will drop significantly , I estimate , if I choose the right town(microclimate) and surburb.

TheMilkyPirate

Were sale agreed nearly 3 months now and still haven't got contracts. Another house has came up in the same street that we love is only 4k more than we are paying and needs zero work. House we are buying needs basically a full renovation. Were thinking of viewing and possibly bidding on it but feel awful, is this something that's done a lot? How would we even go about it

houseyhouse

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119007128#Comment_119007128

It may end up going for more than 4k over the place you’ve agreed to buy. But it is absolutely ok for you to bail if you’ve been waiting for months and then find something better. It’s a seller’s market. They’ll be fine. Is it the same estate agent?

joeguevara

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119007128#Comment_119007128

have you been given a reason for the delay?

I know in my situation (I am selling) it was taking ages for my bank to send deeds to solicitor..all it took was one call from me to the bank and an email from my solicitor on the same day and deeds sent the following day.

TheMilkyPirate

It's a different estate agent to the one were dealing with now. Yeah we expect it to go for a bit more but tbh even if it went for the top end of what we expect were still saving ourselves a lot time and stress and money as well. The more I think about it the more it makes sense.

Reason for the delay is planning/compliance cert issues. We don't actually know what's going on tbh it's been pretty much radio silence for 2 months now. We will go view the house and see how we feel then. Thanks for the replies.

LunaLoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119008103#Comment_119008103

Which bank was that do you mind me asking. Trying to chase ours up at the moment and it's like pulling teeth.

SAMTALK

Last year was sale agreed and sellers pulled out , This year sale agreed again with a different house and problems with banks from sellers side.

Prices are gone so crazy I've decided to sit on it for a while.

Cash buyer and still hitting problems

demr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119007128#Comment_119007128

Don't feel bad about it. You are spending big money on a house that you might potentially live in for the rest of your life. You have to make a decision that is right for you. Besides, if is 3 months later without any sign of a contract, I am guessing the sellers would not be too surprised should you be successful on the other house and pull out.

joeguevara

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119013073#Comment_119013073

Bank of Ireland…

Dublinandy3

Hi All,

After just over a year from when we put the 5k deposit down it seems we're at the end. We are buying a new build and there was delays due to covid and brexit.

Our bank tells us that they have scheduled the drawdown to be tomorrow. I was just wondering what the process actually was?

The sales manager of the new estate kindly let us move in last weekend as our lease was up on the place we were in and our landlord had sold it already.

Because we're in does that mean nothing really happens, aside from maybe an email from the solicitor and bank to say it's done?

I'm just worried as tomorrow is also our last day of the mortgage offer (already extended) so don't want to miss something silly and find we have to apply again right at the end of the process. Bank and solicitors are not the was est to speak to, both taking days or more for answers.

TIA

We finally got our keys to our new home. From going sale agreed to receiving keys, it took 6 months! I cried the first day we went into the house as I was so overwhelmed but I love the house now.

House market is crazy, a house down the road with the exact same blue print is on the market for 22k more than what we paid for our house. In a matter of 6 months.

Mollyb60

BOE are putting up their interest rates. Which would be fine if Danske Bank had given us our mortgage appointment a month ago when we asked for one. Instead they've faffed around and made us wait until next Thursday for an appointment, by which time I'm sure the mortgage will cost more. Wonderful.

TheRona

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119017966#Comment_119017966

I'm currently looking to buy, and we have been trying to buy in the estate we used to live in. A house that had probably €100k spent on it went for €460k last September, then a house which had nothing done to it went for €470k in March this year, and now another house with nothing done to it is about to go sale agreed at almost €520k. Absolute madness. We pulled out of the bidding at around €475k, had no clue it could get this out of hand.