Croí Cónaithe Town Fund - Vacant Property Grant

heddie77

Myself and my husband have just been approved for this Grant. Its a new grant so I am wondering has anyone actually been paid out on it yet? There seems to be alot of red tape. Can anyone shed some light on the legal charge part??

So we bought a house which was in dire need of work and had been vacant. Lady died who owned it and we have gutted the entire house, re wired re plumbed etc everything will be new. We have spent 40k to date and need to spend alot more. We were approved up to 30k but they are asking for a legal charge to be put on our property for 10 years which my mortgage bank may not approve which would mean the grant falls through?

Can anyone advise - has anyone actually been paid out yet? or does anyone have advice on the legal charge part

Gadgie

Have you spoken to your bank about it? What did they say?

My guess would be that the local authority charge would be secondary to the bank's mortgage charge, so they shouldn't have a problem with it.

heddie77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120077133#Comment_120077133

yes this is what i have been told but my solicitor still wants to get approval from my mortgage bank - the council said it was up to us whether bank approved or not as long as they got the legal charge. really it should be the council solicitors to register the charge .. and not us

NameUnavailable

Hi @heddie77 congrats on getting approved at least, even if it is proving tricky!

Can I ask how long it took from application to being approved? We are currently waiting since November and no sign that they've even opened our application...

Miss123

I applied a month ago and have inspection tomorrow. Don’t really know what to expect, we haven’t started any works yet

Miss123

Might not be much help but we applied mid January and have our inspection tomorrow they wrote to us about 2 weeks after receiving the application. It might be worth contacting the vacant homes officer in your local council

donegalman23

I'm in the middle of applying for the grant but my friend who is a builder was going to do the work and I asked my local vacant property officer if my contractor gets paid before, during or after the work is done? She said only when the work is completed and inspected. So I can't get my friend to do it now, he could have waited for the money himself but it's getting the materials and I can't afford them or get loan, so I need to find another contractor and get a quote before I can re-apply.

donegalman23

I've talked to another contractor but he wants me to get plans drawn by an architect. I googled the price of architects and it says €3000-€4000. Imagine paying for an architect and then you might get turned down for grant anyway 🤦

heddie77

Hi

Sorry took so long to reply. Yes we were granted approval in Nov I think and still no payment was supposed to be approved this week but my sol has raised more queries on the charge part so another delay.. the charge can affect first charge if you want to re mortgage down the line so look into this

heddie77

This is the problem we had to fork out every penny so borrowed from credit union and bank and still owe alot out and waiting on payment even tho the works are done. You have to pay all up front for works and show proof then for every penny so keep all receipts right down to paint. They go through it all in fine detail it has been painful but I think we are weeks away from payment thank god!!

Former Coach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622869#Comment_120622869

Would be careful about taking on additional borrowing before mortgage drawn as lender may do additional credit check prior to drawdown and potentially withdraw mortgage approval (if repayment capacity is tight). Best to borrow from family/friends until mortgage drawn down.

heddie77

Oh yea we didn't borrow anything until got mortgage and drawn down