Croi Conaithe (Towns) - Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant

Miss123

does anyone have any advise on the BER certificate aspect of this grant, I’ve been asked to provide a certificate now (before work starts) and one afterwards where it has to be the equivalent to B2… we’ve bought an old house built in 50’s and it is severely unlikely that it will ever be b2 rating - how have I missed this up to now??

shivvykxoxo

Who asked you to provide the BER certificate? Sounds like they’ve mixed this up with the SEAI one stop shop grants where your energy rating needs to be minimum B2 when work is completed. I haven’t seen any mention of this for the Vacant Property grant.

Miss123

The council have asked for the Ber certificate. We have only applied for the vacant property grant. Let’s hope they’ve got this mixed up, wouldn’t be first time for them to provide false information. Thanks for the reassurance I sure was panicking.

shivvykxoxo

I really hope it’s a mix up. None of the docs online about the Vacant Property Grant mention the requirement to increase your BER to B2. The vast majority of vacant properties would need a hell of a lot more need than 30k or even 50k (if derelict) to get their BER up to that level.

Please keep us posted on this if you enquire further.

MicktheMan

You may be interested to know that all dwellings undergoing major renovations are governed by the general building regulations which include minimum requirements for energy / CO2 use (TGD Part L). This may be what the council are referring to.

stotheototheb

has anyone has an issue with their bank accepting there local authority on the mortgage?? seems a grey area. Amazing the rules are changing on 01 May and no detail on new process (or not) has been published!!

shivvykxoxo

@stotheototheb Yes, ptsb are refusing to provide us with the consent letter regarding the legal charge part. Are you having the same issue? Which bank is your mortgage with?

Wasn't aware that the rules were changing on May 1st. Where did you hear this?

jiminho

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120509459#Comment_120509459

Haven’t heard anything about rules changing but there was an announcement yesterday that the scheme is going to be enhanced on Tuesday so we’ll have to tune in then. Although, if they don’t sort out this second charge issue, then it’s all bloody useless to the vast majority of us.

jiminho

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120504895#Comment_120504895

Agreed. I suspect the vast majority of vacant homes are going to be close to the bottom of the BER scale. I know mine is: G. To get it up to a B2 we’re looking at a host of stuff. Now admittedly we’ll be doing a lot of it already eg. updating single glaze to double if not triple but we won’t be putting on exterior insulation as is recommend or putting in a heat pump.

Miss123

Thats first I’ve heard of an update or an enhancement to the grant. That should be interesting, it can’t get much worse anyway

sue191

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120493425#Comment_120493425

No mortgage we sold the last house and the most we could afford was a doer upper.

old_house

"The Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant will increase from €30,000 to €50,000 for vacant properties and from €50,000 to €70,000 for derelict properties. It will be extended to cover houses built up to 2007 and include both rental properties and those occupied by their owners."

Source: https://www.thejournal.ie/housing-development-levies-cabinet-6052558-Apr2023/

Ferny1

Anyone got a successful application for derelict grant through? I'm interested in the nature of the engineers letter - pm me if you wish

Thanks

Miss123

I know it’s a fairly new grant but given the amount of applications approved with 0 paid out to end of 2022 is a real eye opener. It’ll be interesting to see the stats for qtr 1 2023.

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/ebe81-vacant-property-refurbishment-grant-statistics-2022/

jiminho

Good announcement today - no one tell the contractors, I know I won’t.

Interesting stats for YE 2022. Reading on the news that as of March 31 2023, 1542 receive and 599 approved so a decent improvement for Q1 2023 but has anyone been given the actual money!! Coincidently got a call from a the inspector wanting to see the house today. That part took approx. 6 weeks. The real issue is still the second charge though on the mortgage. Still haven’t figure that out yet.

kevgaa

Hi Folks,

Just wondering if anyone had any luck with the councils re applying for the grant after they had moved in.

I just moved into a 1960’s G rated house that was Vacant for over 2 years so Have we missed the boat on this one?

shivvykxoxo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120520164#Comment_120520164

Which council did you apply to? We’ve gone past the 6 week mark now and still no call about an inspection.

shivvykxoxo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120520334#Comment_120520334

We were told we could move in to our property once we sent off our application. We didn’t in the end but that’s what we were told by Dublin City Council. At this time there seems to be over 6 weeks wait between getting your application in and when an inspector comes out to see the house. I can’t see how your council would know whether you’d moved in before or after your application was sent. I would say it’s definitely worth the risk! But give your local council a call first.

jiminho

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120520663#Comment_120520663

DLR

orchard farm

what examples of vacancies do the council look for?ive a house vacant for years that I pay property tax on but still have esb connection and use the old oil boiler heating in winter for a hour to keep house up.Any other ways to prove its vacant?One look inside will prove it unhabibitable

Miss123

From our experience they rely heavily on ESB usage. We bought a vacant property and have a solicitors letter signed by previous owner declaring vacancy for more than 2 years.

applied in January council have came back just this week saying this is unsatisfactory they are asking for esb usage details. Struggling to get anything for the period of vacancy before we bought

TessC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120523617#Comment_120523617

It seems to vary a bit from council to council so worth checking with yours directly. Utilities were never disconnected in my house either, but it seems like they'll accept proof of low usage as proof of vacancy.

TessC

It seems silly to ask this, but does your house have to look in a terrible state to qualify? On the surface, mine doesn't seem too bad. New-ish laminate floors, new-ish gas boiler, recently painted walls. But underneath that, there's old and faulty wiring, heating pipes running down walls and across floors, deteriorating plaster, and asbestos under the kitchen roof. It looks livable on the surface, but it is in dire need of modernising.

stotheototheb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120525508#Comment_120525508

which council was this do you mind me asking?

because of GDPR technically the new house owner has no right to usage details prior to sale??

Miss123

Longford county council! Ironically my job involves implementing data protection / gdpr that’s why we got a signed solicitors letter from previous owner before closing the sale.I knew we would have no hope with esb records before we owned the house!

They sure don’t make these things easy

peacock_lane

I oscillate between thinking they’re just sticklers and thinking they literally haven’t a clue how to implement the scheme at all. The guidelines are vague enough on purpose to give property owners hope they qualify and then trying to get an application in and approved is virtually impossible. My local authority won’t respond to any questions about eligibility unless you have an application in already (I asked what they needed for me to prove it was vacant for x months before I bought it) but the answer to the question will dictate whether I’m eligible or not. Never mind the people with mortgages whose banks won’t meet the requirements about registering the charge. I can’t imagine what work experience kid came up with this idea but as usual it is incredibly poorly thought out.

Miss123

our thoughts are now, if it’s this difficult to get a decision imagine now difficult it’ll be to ever get money, if approved.

shivvykxoxo

For anyone who uses Instagram, @crazyhouseprices posted today on this grant. A lot of people commented under the post with their experience to date. Interesting to see how everyone else is getting on with it.

Miss123

@shivvykxoxo thanks for that, interesting to read the comments.. seems like very little positivity overall around the grant and application process.

shivvykxoxo

@Miss123 No problem! I know, I don’t think I read one positive experience.

We have our inspection tomorrow. I will ask the inspector about the B2 BER requirement your local council mentioned to you and see what they say about it. I’ll keep you posted.