Anyone whose property's MV has fallen to affordable price buying council out?

I was a single mum and bought an af house in 2008.

After i bought it I met someone and have got married since.

When i got married we contacted the solicitor to get him to let the council know that i had married and that i wanted to sell the house.

I moved into my husbands house as it was larger and we are now expecting a baby also. my own house is a 2 bed so not practical With 2 kids and 2 adults .

When i bought the house its mv was 310k and mortgage is 185k. clawback is 33% approx. Its now valued at 225k so it has dropped in mv since i bought it.

The council replied to the socilitor saying that they were looking for the full market value of the house so after selling it we will now have to borrow 50k to pay back the council. this isnt an option for us as husband has large mortgage on his house.

We are now paying 2 mortgages and living in one house. I have had pay cut this year already and husband is on short time in work for some periods and there are talks of redundancies.

The solicitor has told us that he has contacted the council 5 times to negotiate the clawback but they have not got back to him. its now going on 6 months now and too be honest solicitor is very slow to follow up.

Has anyone any suggestions on what we should do. can you negotiate reducing the clawback or even negotiate renting out the property until such time as the value goes back up.

Re: Anyone who's property's MV has fallen to affordable price buying council out?

It was my belief that within the clawback period you will always get the price you paid back, and the council gets the rest. If a loss is to be made because of decreasing market values i thought the council took the hit ? Theres an anti-profit clause for the first 10 yrs , so same should go for anti loss surely ?

Check through your contract thoroughly , maybe try your citizens advice / MABS if your not happy with your solicitors advice.

Re: Anyone who's property's MV has fallen to affordable price buying council out?

Surely, if you sell for 225k and you owe the mtge of 185k then you pay the Council 50k out of the sale and the outstanding mortgage and then you break even.

Re: Anyone who's property's MV has fallen to affordable price buying council out?

Who valued your house at €225K? If it was the council then you whould not have to pay them anything above this amount. You can get the council to value your house for €50. We had our apartment valued and they actually gave us a fair valuation.

Re: Anyone who's property's MV has fallen to affordable price buying council out?

hey bobby, did you have it valued cos you wanted to sell it ?? My situation is i have a 2 bed appt, now in a relationship and planning on moving in with himself as he has a house. THe way i see it, i owe EUR 130 k and the claw back is 40 %. As i see it, whether it sells at 130 or 220 i still do not make a profit myself so i might as well put it up for sale aat 130 as opposed to around 200. Any one know if the council insist you sell it at a certain price ?

Re: Anyone who's property's MV has fallen to affordable price buying council out?

Hi mlouisa, I was told that the council will value it when you sell it in situations like that. I am not sure what would happen if they value it at a higher price than the sale price but I am guessing they will look for a rebate. My situation is different, our apartment is now worth less then what we paid for it through the affordable housing so we are trying to buy the council out for nothing. We were told last year that if their valuation came in at lower then what we paid for it they would release us from the clawback.

The valuation came in lower but now they will not release us from the clawback. We therefore are in a situation where we cannot even rent out our apartment and they have told us our only option is to sell at a loss.

Re: Anyone who's property's MV has fallen to affordable price buying council out?

Hi mlouisa,

I asked about this. What happens is, you fix a price to sell at, then if the property sells, the council send a valuer around to check it (at a cost to you of 50 euro) and if he says that's a fair price, then the sale is on. I think it's the Dublin Valuations office, who do it.

I was told that they were pretty reasonable and would only kick up if you obviously hugely undervalued the place, although at this point christ knows what undervalued is.

Bobby G, why will they not release you from the clawback - seems very unfair.

Society said:

Bobby G, why will they not release you from the clawback - seems very unfair.

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Not sure, we started this process last April. We were told by the council to get them to value the apartment and if they valued it at less then we paid for it they would release the clawback. We paid our €50 for them to value it, they valued it a less then what we paid for it but wouldn't release the clawback

After months of hassling them they said they were getting leagal advice in September and then last month we were told that they could not release us from the clawback after seeking legal advice.

I am still emailing to get an explanation but not getting any replies. At this point in time we are not even allowed rent out our apartment.

I think its time for your local councillor / TD to get involved - that'll 'gee' them up a bit !!

I think that affordable homeowners in such a position, as a lot are now, should be using our collective knowledge in order to push this forward. Affordable homeowners are getting conflicting information from one local authority to the next. I have been told that its possible, others on here have been told its not.

There hasn't been a better time for homeowners to release themselves from the clawback arrangement. It should by right only cost legal fees once the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 has passed all stages in both houses of the Oireachtas.

Would it be an idea to create a sticky here on this sub-forum for this discussion? There's multiple threads on it.