Room to Improve - Grants 😱

From one of the popular Irish construction Facebook groups, a lady is claiming to be the owner. She has said they havent received the Derelict or SEAI grant and the talk of the first time buyers at the start of the show was misleading. They were never in the running for it and they knew that.

I have to have sympathy for them but it's a huge lesson. Stay clear of R to I and give your head a wobble if your looking for advice from this show...

That was just before the half way mark in the programme. It was not in her remarks at the end of the programme. Maybe they were, maybe the surveyors the previous year did not pick up on that (or it would not have sold for 303k) , same as Dermot did not notice that at the beginning either. Dermot seemed more interested in the dark new colour of new roof tiles than repairing the roof that was there, if it needed repairs at all? And if the joists were that rotten to suddenly make the building derelict and unsafe ( to get the derelict grant), where was the independent expert to certify that as required by the grant?

Now maybe everything is in order, but as someone else said, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck...

First you say she didn't say they needed replacing and now you're saying she did but early in the show. So what? She said they needed replacing.

You're hearing hooves and thinking zebras.

I saw that. Someone is lying, because the Quantity Surveyor said they did get the grant.

We were discussing the remarks at the end of the programme - the other poster was referring to the q.s. remarks at the end of the programme, they said. See post no. 189. I wrote "No she did not. Twice I re-watched the Q.S.'s comments at the end of the programme. Unless the Q.S. had two sets of comments on the costings towards the end of the programme, which I don't think so? She mentioned figures of the build costing 338k plus "extras" of 25k making a final account value of €363,000 , which she said equated to a cost per square m of €1972, and that it was "essentially a New Build".

Anyway I re-watched just before the middle of the programme, yes the Q.S. said they had to be replaced. The same Q.S. who said they got the grant ( when they had not even planning permission ), and the owner of the house on facebook says in recent days they have not got the grant. Who do you believe?

FFS

’They got the grant’ is the same thing as saying ‘thety got the mortgage’ which you don’t actually physically get until everything is signed off .

You are no Miss Marple. 😁

Yes she did and people say 'we got a mortgage' all the time, when the reality is they actually haven't until all is certified and signed off. It is common parlance when you are approved for a grant or mortgage.

If you don't know that mortgages and grants are only payable when the terms are met then I wouldn't be letting you out of the house no matter how unsafe it is or isn't.

If there was corruption involved of course it should be condemned.

But there is as yet no sign that there was, except for over active imaginations that think what a neighbour says has any bearing.

If the council approved it then the 'vacancy' and 'dereliction' clauses were, until we know better, satisfied.

When somebody says, as they frequently do, 'we got a mortgage' do you understand that they do not get the money until all works are certified and passed? Yes or No?

The programme did indeed set out the remit to promote the grants - but nobody is going to be going to their local authority and asking for the same grant that couple got in Tipp. If the grants interests them they will get the information and criteria and will have to meet them.

I would imagine everyone would understand that but reading this thread maybe not.

I think there's a mix up here. If it's the Facebook group I'm thinking of, there is such a comment there but it's from a Grainne who says they were in Episode 1 of this series. That's the couple with the old farmhouse on the working farm.

So unless there's another comment in relation to this house in Tipp, it looks like they did get €99K for a habitable house??

Your spot on. I'll have to take a look at ep1 again but seems they are in the lurch for SEAI & Derelict.

I have not seen the programme....

Normally when owners are told something unexpected needs to be done there is shock and cutting back else where to pay for it. Having to replace a roof would be a significant extra cost and a massive shock.

Was this the reaction of the owners here? If not, it may indeed be that the roof was always coming off and the expense factored in from the start.

I look forward to watching the programme.

Given that they were doing a massive job on the house it was a given that the roof was going to be replaced - I would do the same, better to do everything now than later. But that still doesnt mean the original roof on the house needed to be condemned. They were never going to be shocked or surprised that they were replacing the roof - it was always going to be replaced IMO.

It was. They got the grants.

If you knew nothing about the grants before these shows, you now know you can get 'Help to buy' 'Vacant and Derelict' and SEAI grants.

It was never stated that you would get ALL the detail, and I don't think any rational person would think the show could even do that as each case is different.

To me any confusion is emanating from begrudgery, jealousy or just a stubborn refusal to go and look at the detail which is easily accessed online.

*What I said was 'silly' was making a judgement on whether the roof needed to be replaced based on their reaction.