Re Ringfort Balrothery.

M

mufflets

Registered User
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Hi All,

I Just wanted to share my dilemma and see if anyone is in the same boat or can help.
The Ringfort development is administered by fingall Co Co and its big, consisting of over 150 houses and so i hope its ok to start a new thread on it.
I have been offered and accepted one of theses houses under the affordable ownership initiative (similar scheme to the affordable ownership except it moves a lot quicker but you get less of a discount/Clawback at around 27%)

Anyway the problem arose when my bank valued the house at 30K less than the councill did, (you get your own mortgage under this scheme)this was understandable since the councill valued the houses over six months ago. but was a big problem for me as the bank would not mortgage the house as the contract stood with this inaccuracy

I explained the story to Fingall and they are at present re-valuing the houses at Ringfort. i am one of the first to be offered a house there but they did say "We are getting revaluations done so i presume they are re-valuing others as well"

Anyway they are now proposing to revalue the houses but leave the cost price to the likes of me or anyone else out there who has been offered one of these houses the same. this would leave me/us a discount of no more than 17% which would be very unfair with every other development getting a discount of at least over 25%.
And possibly uneconomical ,with builders accepting offers of up to 15% less than market value on private developments with no mention of Clawback, or being tied to one mortgage provider etc.

I have written to the Councill to explain the above as politely as i could and pointed out that i ,or anyone else would be much better off waiting for the next development, in the hope that they will leave the clawbacks/discounts as they are make and it again a great deal to move to Ringfort.
I would ask anyone who is in the same boat to write a similar letter and/or to contact me (ill give you a copy of mine if you want).

All constructive suggestions welcome.
 
You make a very valid point.

Unless you really want this particular property, I suggest you forget about it, as a 17% discount in current market conditions in not very much, considering all the rules you'll have to comply with.

The only positive I can see coming out of it, is that if the properties continue to drop you can buy the council out for next to nothing....

You'll also be losing your first time buyer status, which is a big loss.

Like I said, its up to yourself, but don't let the "oh i have to take it attitude" cloud your judgment!

It's a terrible time to be buying or selling a place right now.

Good luck whatever you do...
 
I don't get why the bank wouldn't give you the mortgage though. It's actually the safest option for them. You're protected against negative equity with affordable housing so you'll always be able to pay off the mortgage regardless of market value.
 
What are the homes like, mufflets? Anyone know if there will be some of this development for the affordable housing scheme?
Wait and see what the re-evaluation comes up with anyway.. like colsku said, it'll make a big difference to your decision whether this is the ideal place you'd like to live or not so you'll have to really think about it long and hard.
 
Hi mufflets.

We faced a similar situation in Phibblestown Wood however it didn't cause an issue with getting a mortgage. The properties were offered by Fingal but handled by the AHP. Example - houses valued by AHP at 410K, but by bank valuers were valued at 350/360K. I know many people in the estate lobbied the AHP to revalue the properties. However in the end they stood fast by their valuation.
One thing to note is that with the Affordable Housing Initiative the houses are purchased by the council for the full price. So basically they are subsidising about 100K of the price of the house. If they agree a price with the developer - or have agreed that price a good few months ago -then their hands are somewhat tied as they have to make their books balance! That being said it is unfair that purchasers are paying over the odds, or have an unfair clawback due to that.
One of my friends did successfully change the value on her property in Erris Square so keep on at the council.
Fingers crossed for ya!

Eims
 
Thanks for the replys folks

Unless you really want this particular property, I suggest you forget about it, as a 17% discount in current market conditions in not very much, considering all the rules you'll have to comply with.
Click to expand...
Im begining to think your right colsku but im hoping that any others being offered the same deal see it the same way, in which case the councill will have to change the claw-backs back to what they are every where else, cos as it stands were realy getting no discount at all.
The only positive I can see coming out of it, is that if the properties continue to drop you can buy the council out for next to nothing....
Click to expand...
i dont understand what you mean by this . are you saying that if the house value dropped to what i paid id owe the councill nothing.


I don't get why the bank wouldn't give you the mortgage though. It's actually the safest option for them. You're protected against negative equity with affordable housing so you'll always be able to pay off the mortgage regardless of market value.
Click to expand...
Its because my mortgage was borderline they reached as far as they did because of the added security involved.

What are the homes like, mufflets? Anyone know if there will be some of this development for the affordable housing scheme?
Wait and see what the re-evaluation comes up with anyway..
Click to expand...
pictures of houses on fingall site.
157 2 and three bedroom houses . all owned and built by the councill (so i dont think they be loosing money either way) for AHS AhI and some social housing, but its a lovely area and houses are roomy with great big gardens.

revalution back today

originally :market value €340k Discount/clawback 25% cost to me €255K

With new valuations this is the way they want to go

Market Value €312 (got mail of the details today) Discount 18% cost to me €255K

ps cheers for the big up eim.
 
I see a similar position arrising with my application. I have been accepted for a 2 bed in carrington, Santry. Fingal value it at €358k and I'm buying it for €272k. A property friend of mine told me he wouldnt pay over €315 for any two bes in the area.

The problem I have is that I get a 100% mortgage based on the loan being less than 85% of the value. If IIB get a valuation back of say €315,000 then I have to pay an extra €5,000 to make the difference. Leaving aside any issue with the deal being good or not.

On that issue, if Fingal are stating a clawback of 27% on my property and the value comes back lower, do they revise the clawback???? If there is a dispute bewteen IIB and Fingal over the valuation, what happens???? I have a feeling IIB won't budge on it, why should they? From what I hear, the council are in a rediculous position, trying to claim valuations way over the top. Will I then be forced to go to different lenders to get acceptance of the valuation?

Thanks

Colin

mufflets said:
Hi All,

I Just wanted to share my dilemma and see if anyone is in the same boat or can help.
The Ringfort development is administered by fingall Co Co and its big, consisting of over 150 houses and so i hope its ok to start a new thread on it.
I have been offered and accepted one of theses houses under the affordable ownership initiative (similar scheme to the affordable ownership except it moves a lot quicker but you get less of a discount/Clawback at around 27%)

Anyway the problem arose when my bank valued the house at 30K less than the councill did, (you get your own mortgage under this scheme)this was understandable since the councill valued the houses over six months ago. but was a big problem for me as the bank would not mortgage the house as the contract stood with this inaccuracy

I explained the story to Fingall and they are at present re-valuing the houses at Ringfort. i am one of the first to be offered a house there but they did say "We are getting revaluations done so i presume they are re-valuing others as well"

Anyway they are now proposing to revalue the houses but leave the cost price to the likes of me or anyone else out there who has been offered one of these houses the same. this would leave me/us a discount of no more than 17% which would be very unfair with every other development getting a discount of at least over 25%.
And possibly uneconomical ,with builders accepting offers of up to 15% less than market value on private developments with no mention of Clawback, or being tied to one mortgage provider etc.

I have written to the Councill to explain the above as politely as i could and pointed out that i ,or anyone else would be much better off waiting for the next development, in the hope that they will leave the clawbacks/discounts as they are make and it again a great deal to move to Ringfort.
I would ask anyone who is in the same boat to write a similar letter and/or to contact me (ill give you a copy of mine if you want).

All constructive suggestions welcome.
Click to expand...
 
Heres how it worked for me.
Write a letter to the council explain your story and request that a new evaluation be done, this they did for me and many others, their current evaluations can be outdated by months and a lot of money.
They would not move from their asking price but reduced their clawback.
Evaluations can be somewhat flexible (varying slightly from one valuer to another) and a good mortgage agent will make sure that the thing works out for you and they are free to hire .
pm me if you want. i can send you a copy of the letter i sent to the council and the number of my mortgage advisor.

I have read your mail again, you need a mortgage agent to answers these questions and to know which banks to approach and how and to find a way to make this work for
you without shelling out money. my agent worked miracles to get mine through.
 
Thanks for the reply. Ad I said, the valuation hasn't come back so I'll cross the bridge if I have to. I actualy work in financial services, not dealing with mortgages directly, I am getting advise along the line but I went direct to speed things up.

I have since found out that IIB are the strictest when it comes to valuations. The banks will allow a valuation to be done only by a nominated panel. Other banks are less fussy and you can play around with the figures.

When I get the figure back i'll see if there's a difference and writed to Fingal.

Thanks

Colin
 
I have since found out that IIB are the strictest when it comes to valuations. The banks will allow a valuation to be done only by a nominated panel. Other banks are less fussy and you can play around with the figures.
Click to expand...
I still say hire a mortgage adviser they know all this already and more and its in their interest to get your mortgage through.

When I get the figure back i'll see if there's a difference and writed to Fingal.
Click to expand...
Certainly do

Best of luck
 
Hi just in the process of buying a house here, signed the papers with the solicitors two weeks ago, submitted the snag list about a month ago, and I've been told today that they're having problems getting the builder back, and that we could close without the builder finishing the snag, I'm a bit wary of doing this, we didnt' have much on the snag list, but I did find that most of the interior doors were damaged to some extent and the handles on all the interior doors were mottled and very stiff, the front door handles are very badly scarred and mottles too, and the only other thing was the exterior windows down stairs looked like they'd been scrubed with a brillo pad. Anybody here have similar problems or did ye find things ok, anybody move in without finishing the snag ? Any info would be great, Thanks
 
hi lorrainen,
We will be going up to do our snag list next week, glad i read your msg this is something i'll def ask about. What answer did you get from fingal about the builder?
jeni8383
 
Hi Jenni
we did our snag at the beginning of September and we were told by Peter in Fingal that the snag shouldn't be a problem that the builder was still on site, the following week I spoke to Peter and he told me that he was having problems getting the builder back to do some jobs, the builder's from Newry, Peter's gone on holidays at the moment for a month or so and I'm now dealing with Nuala and she's told me the snag list hasn't been done but that there was an architect out there this week looking at the snags and she wouldnt know if they'd been done or not until she spoke to him. And I have a feeling the builder is not going to want to change the interior doors or the exterior scratched windows, So i'm not too sure whether we should move in before the snag is done, cause i dont think it'll ever get done, which makes me wonder why Fingal have you do a snag list at all, the other thing that bothered me was the air vents were all bowed, ill fitted and when you touched them all this dust and concrete fell out of them, let me know how you get on with your snag
 
By the way did anybody here receive a lower vaulation from their banks and have any problems with Fingal accepting them, I got a €10k lower valuation and Fingal refused to accept it saying they'd already reduced the valuation of the property. I found a guy called David Bell in the EBS fantastic and the €10K lower vaulation didn't cause any problems with EBS. If anyone's interested here's his email address [email protected]
 
hi lorrainen,
Well we are goin over on wednesday, nuala said she wud be there to let us in.Im bringing my dad to help us because i wudnt have a clue what to look out for, 1 thing that really stood out last time i viewed the house was the front door handle and lock were discoloured.Do you have a rough idea when you can move in to ur new house? A friend of mine bought a house over in balbriggan through the aff housing and the snag list was not completed before he moved in. He had lads doing work on the house for months. He said if he could do it again he would not of moved in till after all work was carried out.
 
Haven't been given a date yet, but I signed all the contracts three weeks ago, I have to phone Nuala and see if there's been any work done on the snag, I reckon we wont be in until December, did your friend have much stuff that needed to be done ?
 
bad leak in the bathroom, and problem with doors.When the builders finally came out they fixed every thing in a space of 2 months.
 
Hi Jenni
how did it go with your snag list ? We're still waiting to have ours done by the builder and we gave it to fingal on the 1st September. They've also broke their stamp for the contracts, which I signed over 6 weeks ago at this stage, spoke to Peter in there and they're having difficulty in getting the builder back to do the snags, anyone else in the same boat, I'm also sure that the value of the house has dropped yet again since August when we were offered the house
 
we had trouble getting our snags done but to be honest all the they were minor-paint touch ups, broken fencing in the garden. if i had of known it would take so long to do the snag, second snag, final approval etc then i would have gone ahead with the sale without doing the list and sorted the problems myself. The only other issue i had was that when I ran taps in the bathroom one of the floor boards showed there was a leak- plummer called out two days later and fixed it.

I think (although I could be wrong) that we're all going to get our external door handle replaced- I was told that would happen regardless of snag. my sister bought on open market, the doors in their estate needed replacing and it took about a year.
 
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