Selling to council

aj89 · 19-01-2018 03:32PM #1

Hi folks,

Just wondering if people have any experiences of selling a house to the County Council.

My house is on my market currently and we have been advised that the council would be willing to make an offer.

Does anyone have any pros or cons for the seller?

Cheers!

Gumbo · 19-01-2018 04:21PM

Same as a standard sale.
Time period is the same.

The council offered my mate 5k over the other highest bidder recently here in dublin.

aj89 · 19-01-2018 04:24PM

Couldn't really imagine anything different myself, just said I might as well throw the idea out there in case I missed anything obvious!

hawkelady · 19-01-2018 04:24PM

Does the estate agent tell the seller it's a county council ? Obvisiously the seller will accept the highest bid no matter who offers I suppose. Kceire.... was your mates place a house or apt??? I hear that the council are slow to bid on apt due to " hassle with mgmt companies". Not sure if true or not

aj89 · 19-01-2018 04:26PM

It was our estate agent that rang to say the council were in contact querying the house.

NauP · 19-01-2018 04:32PM

You don't need an estate agent. Deal directly and avoid agents commission.

uck51js9zml2yt · 19-01-2018 05:55PM

What section would deal with this?

NauP · 19-01-2018 05:58PM

Elianna Wooden Trademark wrote: »

What section would deal with this?

Housing Dept.

Graham · 19-01-2018 06:11PM

NauP wrote: »

You don't need an estate agent. Deal directly and avoid agents commission.

Estate agents aren't nearly as daft as some vendors.

As the EA has already made the introduction and assuming the OP has already contracted the agent to sell the property, I can't think of any way this wouldn't end up with the OP receiving a bill from the EA.

hairyslug · 19-01-2018 06:31PM

We sold to them, they offered 4k above the previous bid.
We were told that once they put an offer in, they never pull out. But we had to wait an additional 3 weeks while whoever had to sign off on it came back from holidays.

Samuel T. Cogley · 19-01-2018 06:58PM

hawkelady wrote: »

Does the estate agent tell the seller it's a county council ? Obvisiously the seller will accept the highest bid no matter who offers I suppose. Kceire.... was your mates place a house or apt??? I hear that the council are slow to bid on apt due to " hassle with mgmt companies". Not sure if true or not

There are numerous reasons why a vendor might not take the highest bid. Nowt as queer as folk.

the_syco · 19-01-2018 07:07PM

hawkelady wrote: »

Obvisiously the seller will accept the highest bid no matter who offers I suppose.

Not always. Past neighbour back in Ireland sold their house to someone who lived locally, as the neighbour had friends on the road. Think the family who got the house was 2nd or 3rd highest; the others were buy2let.

Sleeper12 · 19-01-2018 07:18PM

I can't speak for other councils but DCC can be a nightmare to deal with. They will follow through with the deal but it can take twice as long as a regular sale. Every i has to be dotted and every t must be crossed to the extreme.

Gumbo · 19-01-2018 08:06PM

hawkelady wrote: »

Does the estate agent tell the seller it's a county council ? Obvisiously the seller will accept the highest bid no matter who offers I suppose. Kceire.... was your mates place a house or apt??? I hear that the council are slow to bid on apt due to " hassle with mgmt companies". Not sure if true or not

A house.
Technically you don’t need an estate agent either as you can call the city council directly. They will tell you straight out if they are interested and the ball starts rolling from there.

They will inspect and value the property and you accept of your happy.
Only fees are your legal fees then.

Gumbo · 19-01-2018 08:06PM

Sleeper12 wrote: »

Every i has to be dotted and every t must be crossed to the extreme.

Which should be the case in any house purchase to be honest.

October · 19-01-2018 08:14PM

I sold to Fingal. Took about a month longer than normal but that was mainly because it was over Christmas/solicitor went on maternity/staff on time off. But apart from that it was a smooth process and I knew council wasn’t going to pull out of sale.

Sleeper12 · 19-01-2018 08:25PM

kceire wrote:

Which should be the case in any house purchase to be honest.

Yes it should but DCC take months longer for some strange reason.

Dee01 · 19-01-2018 10:49PM

WE sold to the council (DCC) because we knew they wouldn’t pull out of the sale. They weren’t the highest bidder, but we knew we had a guaranteed sale, so we took the safe option. They were fine to deal with and while it took a bit longer, that didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.

uck51js9zml2yt · 19-01-2018 11:55PM

Dee01 wrote: »

WE sold to the council (DCC) because we knew they wouldn’t pull out of the sale. They weren’t the highest bidder, but we knew we had a guaranteed sale, so we took the safe option. They were fine to deal with and while it took a bit longer, that didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.

How long did it take?

mad m · 20-01-2018 01:07AM

Just remember DCC will have a max to go to. They factor in a certain price also to bring house up to renting standards.

DCC do not want to be seen to be out bidding people , they won’t get into a bidding war etc.

AFAIK it’s not the housing dept, there is a section in there that solely deals with buying houses- “buy backs” as it’s known.

evolving_doors · 20-01-2018 01:17AM

mad m wrote: »

Just remember DCC will have a max to go to. They factor in a certain price also to bring house up to renting standards.

DCC do not want to be seen to be out bidding people , they won’t get into a bidding war etc.

AFAIK it’s not the housing dept, there is a section in there that solely deals with buying houses- “buy backs” as it’s known.

The 10 yr lease is a different kettle of fish but i know they just go to the daft report and estimate the rent from that figure in your location.
They might use the property register to calculate an average from there too as they are actual sales as opposed to asking prices on daft.

It would be interesting to see if the offer people received is around the average daft sale figure during that period.

hawkelady · 20-01-2018 08:11AM

mad m wrote: »

Just remember DCC will have a max to go to. They factor in a certain price also to bring house up to renting standards.

DCC do not want to be seen to be out bidding people , they won’t get into a bidding war etc.

AFAIK it’s not the housing dept, there is a section in there that solely deals with buying houses- “buy backs” as it’s known.

You are right. The cc have an acquisitions dept that look after purchases. I believe the property has to be vacant before they will negotiate, even if a landlord is selling a property with council tenants in situ ..

Dee01 · 20-01-2018 10:01AM

Elianna Wooden Trademark wrote: »

How long did it take?

We went sale agreed at the start of August and everything changed hands on 22nd December. We did push and push for a date before Christmas as we didn’t want it dragging into the new year. The only tip I’d give you is to keep on them. We called them directly whenever we needed an update.

October · 20-01-2018 11:13AM

Council bought my house which was rented out at the time to a tenant in receipt of rent allowance. Tenant was also on the housing list and they kept tenant in house after sale completed.

You are right. The cc have an acquisitions dept that look after purchases. I believe the property has to be vacant before they will negotiate, even if a landlord is selling a property with council tenants in situ ..[/quote]

Scienceless · 26-02-2018 12:23AM

Are all city councils buying houses if they consider them suitable?

CollyFlower · 26-02-2018 01:45AM

Scienceless wrote: »

Are all city councils buying houses if they consider them suitable?

They (the Council) will buy anything in any area. They had 20% of the housing on the new Ballsbridge development but somehow they came to a deal with the developers and will now get 0% of that development.

SNNUS · 26-02-2018 08:16AM

Your neighbours will be delighted with your decision.

SuperS54 · 26-02-2018 09:14AM

SNNUS wrote: »

Your neighbours will be delighted with your decision.

Ex neighbours soon!

amcalester · 26-02-2018 09:20AM

SNNUS wrote: »

Your neighbours will be delighted with your decision.

Then let them buy and they can chose who lives in it.

October · 26-02-2018 11:22PM

You are right. The cc have an acquisitions dept that look after purchases. I believe the property has to be vacant before they will negotiate, even if a landlord is selling a property with council tenants in situ ..[/quote]

Council bought my house with tenant in situ.

Caranica · 27-02-2018 10:27AM

October wrote: »

You are right. The cc have an acquisitions dept that look after purchases. I believe the property has to be vacant before they will negotiate, even if a landlord is selling a property with council tenants in situ ..

Council bought my house with tenant in situ.[/quote]

Depends on the council. Dun Laoghaire Rathdown require vacant possession, not sure about others

Selling to council

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