County Council Mortgages

Hi All,

Does anyone know about getting a mortgage from your local county council? Are they more difficult or a bit easier to get finance from?
Any advice welcome.

I'm pretty bad at posting on this site but I Couldn't help but reply to you as we have been through the wars with our local authority in this.
We applied over 12 months ago with Offaly and went through all the paperwork, got together all our statements etc etc. We met the requirements on income and had deposit saved. We thought it would be fairly straight forward but knew they would be very slow.
First result came back after about 2 months. All applicants processed through Dublin now. They wanted us to save for 6 more months and not use our credit card for cash transactions (we had only used it once on a holiday abroad but we had put money in it to cover our holiday spending!!) Anyway, we played the game and off we went.
They also said they wanted us to look at borrowing less. (we had applied for 190k)
After 6 months waiting and saving we went back. Application resubmitted, as we were told we wouldnt have to re-apply as new applicant (this was only verbally). They took over 3 months to come back and tell us that we were now over the income levy (75k as a couple) and turned us down!
We were over the limit as they pushed our application into the next year so out p60's for 2009 were not allowed. The problem I have with this is that my salary cert puts us over the limit but my p60 for 2010 and 2011 will have us under it as I am on maternity leave and my unpaid leave will lower our income even more!!
Its a disgrace they cant be honest with people and tell them not to bother as they are not in the business of doing mortgages any more. We are now approved with the bank as we ended up saving for so much longer our deposit is larger so they have approved us. The reason we were interested in a mortgage through the local authority was their interest rates were good and we felt they may not be a willing to keep upping the rates as ruthlessly as the banks. Also, there was the smaller deposit issue which appealed to us at the time.
Gosh, sorry I've really vented there but we were so annoyed would hate someone to get their hopes up.
Just one other thing, a lady who works in the housing dept told me quietly that it had been over 2.5 years since she remembers them issuing a mortgage so I gave up then. I am as a matter of principle appealing it so will let you know how I get on.
Best of luck and just keep saving

The House Purchase Loans have a variable rate so they work out quite pricey too as you can't fix the rate !

Thanks for the input guys. Think my situation is unique. This enquiry is actually for a sibling whom I own a house with (it was willed to us). He wishs to buy out my half of the house and to do so he would only require a small mortgage. Problem is he would be applying on his own as he's single and while he would have some savings and is in full employment I'm not sure if anyone will lend to him. Would it make a difference that he actually owns 50% of the property he's taking the mortgage out on ?

As far as I know, Council mortgages are virtually non existant at present- as the Department of the Environment (who provides the funding) has given local authorities very limited or no funds...

In any case, how much is your sibling looking for- can he not raise this via other sources (incl. via a medium term loan with credit union, etc)...

sibling buy-out

could you not reach a legal agreement that he buys you out by monthly payments of X.....in other words, you are effectively agreeing to transfer ownership once he completes a certain number of payments?

Thanks for the input guys. Maria087, good idea but not a road I'd be willing to go down. Could get too messy if you know what I mean.