Pyrite Testing Results: I.S.398-1:2017

DigBipper

Hello,

My partner & I recently went sale agreed on a property in an estate that we learned after had issues with pyrite. From what we can tell it was an earlier stage of the development but it is hard to get the full information on this!

The house we were looking at had the Pyrite subfloor testing carried out and the results came back as negative (2 samples taken from two locations within the property), other houses in the row (this house is an end of terrace and we know of 2 attached having the test carried out) have also returned the same negative result from the same tests being carried out.

The house (built circa 2006) returned a Damage rating of 0 (Category A) with the Hardcore Classification being the best mark achievable: "Negligible susceptibility to expansion (Pass)"

The bank we had approval in principle with rejected our loan offer on the property (even after we provided the full report as well as the official certificate). The engineer firm and geologists who took the sample both agreed this was a ridiculous decision and that the house was an extremally low risk case. The bank said they would only loan on the basis the property could provide a remediation certificate!!! Works it had never required to be carried out so it was an impossible request.

We also learned that other banks have offered loans based on the same testing results this house obtained (the other houses mentioned above have been sold in the past few years on the back of these certificates being acquired).

Had anybody here any experience on houses in similar situations? How likely could it still be for pyrite to take hold (after 17 years, and also returning negative results in two locations). We have heard that houses in the estate had to get remediation works carried out within a few years completion, which also made us think that if it were to be an issue in this property the pyrite would have taken hold by now.

We love the house, and were the bank to have returned with the loan offer would have had no issues following through with the sale. Despite us thinking the bank have simply interpreted this incorrectly we are still a bit on edge now with this result.

Any experiences, advice etc. would be of great help to us!!

We are planning on trying a different lender but still unsure on whether this is the right choice or is there still a risk attached with taking this property on and we would be best moving on.

Streco80

Hi DigBipper,

I unfortunately had pyrite in my last house which we thankfully were fortunate enough to have remediated. My husband bought the house in 2005 and the house was officially green certed following the remediation in 2019.

I have said in a previous post that I would have no problem buying a house that had a green cert, but if there was even a sniff of pyrite in the estate...unless it had a cert, I myself personally wouldn't buy it.

The absolute stress that is involved when it comes to pyrite is not worth it. I can see that it was tested and they are saying pass etc but we didn't even think we had pyrite until about 12 years after the house was purchased. It really quite literally creeped up. The pipes underneath the house started getting damaged and affected in 2017. Our neighbours gas boiler nearly exploded due to the pressure on pipes. And even at that, we were a level 2. There were so many houses that were completely worse off then us. On the other side of it, there were houses that were eventually confirmed to have pyrite but they were deemed too low a level to even be considered for remediation. I felt so sorry for them, basically being left in limbo and told to get another test done in a year or two to see if gets any worse so they may possibly be put on a list.

Banks are terrified of the word Pyrite, and I can understand why. I know when we were selling, the main concern was our green cert which we had and on top of that, the buyers bank (AIB) also wanted a copy of our neighbours Green cert. We were thankfully end of terrace but if we had been mid terrace and only one of the neighbours beside us had the remediation done, we wouldn't have been able to sell.

In addition to all this, do consider the noise of the remediation of the houses around you also. It is very messy and extremely noisy as they drill and empty out the houses. Just something to consider.

Best of luck with the house search.

DigBipper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120869370#Comment_120869370

Hello  Streco80,

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to this!

That sounds like a harrowing experience your family went through. We know that this house as well as its adjoining neighbor (sold in 2021) both have been tested and returned negative results. The house at this stage is 17 years old so we feel that if there was any issues they would have taken hold by now... A messy situation that had we known what was in store we would have removed ourselves at the beginning. Really feel for the sellers too in this scenario and any house owners within an estate such as this (or your own)

We were generally unhappy with how the bank handled the situation (not their final decision which is up to them to make, just in terms of dealing with them and asking for something that is literally impossible in this case) so are pursuing different lender. We want their opinion on this also before making a final call on how we proceed.

Thanks again,

DB

DownByTheGarden

HAve you tried a broker. They can bring it to more banks with less work for you than applying to each individually.