Buying out council - Affordable Housing

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Affordable27

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Hi there

I have lived in my apartment which I got through affordable housing for the last 18 months. I am looking for information on what to do if I want to buy out the council. ( DCC).

Couple of Questions:

1. What do I need to do to buy out the council?
2. If the value of the property now is the same as what I paid for it ( for example €220K), then what happens? Do I still need to get a remortgage or can I ask my Lender (EBS) and the council to just take the council off the deeds and keep my current mortgage?

many thanks in advance for your help everyone
 
DCC have advised me that I cannot buy them out . Is this correct?
I am shocked - can anyone help me?

This is the reply they sent me:

Unfortunately there isn't a way of buying out the clawback without selling the property. We've checked with management and the Law Department and currently the only way of the clawback being removed is when the purchaser sells the property and pays the clawback percentage of the sale price.
 
I think councils vary.
If in the past someone remortgaging triggered clawback with DCC then I'm sure you'd have a case now. Have you asked them about remortgaging rather than 'buying them out'. Of course the bank mightn't offer you the same mortgage again.
 
Affordable27 said:
DCC have advised me that I cannot buy them out . Is this correct?
I am shocked - can anyone help me?

This is the reply they sent me:

Unfortunately there isn't a way of buying out the clawback without selling the property. We've checked with management and the Law Department and currently the only way of the clawback being removed is when the purchaser sells the property and pays the clawback percentage of the sale price.
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what a loud of b****x to put it politely (was this from DCC?). I have bought the council out and now own the property privately. I have not sold my property to do this. I paid 38K to the council and bought them out, and it was done with less than a year in living in the property too, which is another thing they say can't be done. I am living in my proper 2 years and a half now, and we had bought them out a year and half ago.
 
Hi Helen L - yes this was from DCC.

I want to buy them out as property prices are at an all time low and I think I would only have to pay a small amount back due to the value of property decreasing.

Can you point me in the right direction of who I need to deal with in DCC to do this? Any help is greatly appreciated. What process did you need to go through to do this? Was it with DCC?
 
Affordable27 said:
Hi Helen L - yes this was from DCC.

I want to buy them out as property prices are at an all time low and I think I would only have to pay a small amount back due to the value of property decreasing.

Can you point me in the right direction of who I need to deal with in DCC to do this? Any help is greatly appreciated. What process did you need to go through to do this? Was it with DCC?
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Hi Affordable27,

My contacts at time in DCC who were very helpful are below, I can tell you now, i am shocked that someone said that you could not buy them out unless you sell the property. I know a few people who have bought them out, and as i said, i am one of them. I think Ronan Rogers would be best to deal with with any query, and if you ring DCC and ask for him he will answer it very clearly. He would be the legal side of that area and would know the correct answer, Re: DCC, they can pass you from billy to jack half the time, one person saying one thing and another saying another. I talked to my solicitor, so i knew what i was entitled to, and when one person told me different i just contacted another - Ronan was by far the most helpful in correct information. If you email - he will reply to you deffinitely. Let me know how you get on.

[email protected]
Colin Sharkey

[email protected]
John Durkan

[email protected]
Ronan Rogers (Legal Dept in DCC)

Solicitors are (beauchamps)
 
By any chance are you trying to buy them out for nothing i.e. the market value has dropped below what you paid for it? We are in the process of trying to buy SDCC out for nothing as the marked value has now dropped below what we paid for our affordable apartment. They are currently seeking legal advice and wont have an answer for us for at least another month.

I know each council is different but I am sure none of them will what to be bought out for nothing.
 
Helen L - Thank you so much for your information, I really appreciate it and I will post here when I hear back from DCC. You have really eased my mind as I thought I was going mad. Thanks again..

Bobby G - As they had told me I couldn't buy them out, I hadn't disclosed what I wanted to pay them, but looking at the prices of the apartments in my estate now, it is a similar price to what I paid for the affordable appartment. I.e I paid €220K, the two beds are going from €214K. So where do I stand there? Would be interested to hear how you get on Bobby G! If they do advise you can buy them out for nothing then how would it work? Would you have to change lender or would the council just take their interest off the Deeds?
 
I will give you an update when we sort it out. I am not sure how it will work but I am sure we will have to get a solicitor to make sure it is binding.
 
I've been trying to buy DCC out for the past 2-3 months and they are not playing ball. We got our apartment valued at €200k by 2 local estate agents and sent one valuation to DCC. After a month they got back and said that they valued the property at €240k. DCC have not valued my property and had no intention of valuing the property. They have deliberately over valued in order to get a clawback of €25k.

Obviously I was not happy, and I asked that they contact the two estate agents to discuss the €40k difference. DCC agreed to this however they explained that it would not make a difference and their valuation would remain. I asked how they could value the property without coming to view and again they said they will come and view the property but it would not make a difference to their valuation.

There were many other inconsistencies whereby DCC continually contradicted themselves.

They are advertising our apartments in the Evening Herald recently for €180k through the AH scheme. We mentioned this on one of our many calls with the valuer. She let slip that they are valued at €214k on the open market. We asked why they didn’t value ours at €214k and she completely back tracked. I know the reason that they didn’t value our at €214 is because we initially bought for €215 through the AH and therefore they would still not get a clawback.

We have sent this to a solicitor and made a number of recommendations in order to get this sorted out. One was that we have an independent valuer. Nothing has worked.

How can this happen? Obviously the valuer in DCC has a vested interest to value the property as high as possible to get a bigger clawback. Is this legal?

The moral of my story being; If the property is now worth less than the original AH price, generally it means that they won’t get a clawback if you buy them out. Therefore, they will do everything possible to get that clawback.

Sooo frustrating…
 
We are in a slightly different situation to you as SDCC sent their on valuer and she valued the apartment at less then what we paid for it. That was about 2 months ago now and still nothing has happened.
 
nathan210705 said:
She let slip that they are valued at €214k on the open market. We asked why they didn’t value ours at €214k and she completely back tracked. I know the reason that they didn’t value our at €214 is because we initially bought for €215 through the AH and therefore they would still not get a clawback.
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That's pretty appalling. Have you tried the Ombudsman? When I had a problem with DCC over my affordable housing I went to the Ombudsman and it got sorted straightaway.
 
Hi Guys,

I have been dealing with Dublin City Council all day and feel very frustrated by the whole experience and am really hoping that somebody here can help me with my query.

I bought an affordable housing apartment from DCC in 2007 and am now looking to buy the council out of the clawback so that essentially I will own a 100% privately owned apartment.

When I bought my apt, I got my mortgage through IIB homeloans as they were at the time. I have spoken to a number of people in DCC today, from their loans dept. to their legal dept. and have been told that there is no way that I can buy them out of the clawback. I've been informed that the only way this could happen is if I had originally organised my mortgage through DCC and now wanted to remortgage with another lender. So basically that rules me out.

It seems that a number of you have done exactly what it is that I want to do. I've spoken with some of the people in DCC that were recommended on this site as helpful but unfortunately they didn't seem to think that it would be possible to for me to buy them out in this way.

If there is any advice that you could give me as to what to try next, it would be really appreciated.

Thanks a lot!
 
Hi Roe,

I understand completely how you feel. They are so frustrating to deal with. It seems to me that they are chopping and changing their policies to force people to stay with them.
 
Hi Nathan210...

Thanks for your response. I see from your previous posting that you have a least got so far with the council in that they are valuing your property and haven't told you that you actually can't buy them out. Can I just ask, are you in the same boat as myself? As in did you get your mortgage from a bank rather than through DCC?

If that is the case then I'm wondering why I'm getting nothing other than a brick wall each time that I speak with them. Should I go to a solicitor and if so could you or anybody else recommend one with experience in this area. I do not want to go back to the solicitor that I used when I originally purchased as I wasn't happy with their performance.

Thanks again.
 
Hi Roe,

I actually got my mortage through DCC. Although I cannot understand why you are not allowed to buy them out? You should have the same right as anyone else to buy them out.

Maybe somebody else can provide you with more information on this.
 
Thanks nathan210,

So are you actually remortgaging with another lender then? Or getting a loan and paying DCC whatever the clawback amount is that they have calculated? I only ask as I have been told by DCC that if you remortage from a DCC mortgage to another lender then you don't have to pay a clawback. This is such a mine field. fingers crossed that somebody else may be or has been in my exact situation and can shed more light on the matter for me. Thanks for your help!
 
Hi Guys,

I'm in the same boat - Got Mortgage through EBS - I had written out an email to send to the Legal guys in DCC , but after reading your mail, I might hold off and speak to a solicitor.

Helen L - Did you buy with DCC/Mortgage or did you Mortgage with a bank?

Many thanks
 
I was attempting to re-mortage with another lender to buy them out, however, I cannot do this as they are completely overvaluing the property in order to get a €25k clawback.
 
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