advice need huge huge delays afforable housing

T

trublue

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While I think this is a great great scheme and we felt we were very lucky to been offered a house, we are not however, please do bear in mind receiving a charity offer, we are indeed buying our home granted less any developer profit but still paying a sizable amount of cash.


We accepted on offer of a house in cork built by BOWEN in Aug 2006 – I was so delighted, we had to accept the offer within days -house unseen as security on the gate of the site, after a few months we were allowed our engineer do the snag- this was the first time we saw the house- our new home.

A) The finish by Bowen was one of the most slap-dash I have ever seen – very shoddy finnish, we are still trying to get some of snags – completed – some of the houses are even leaking water. We have very uneven plastering (external and internal) damaged glass and window frames- a hole in a internal door, to mention but a few problems. The house was thrown together,

Still we were happy to be able to buy a home. What I cant understand is I have heard that even after all the problems on our estate – Bowen have been awarded another scheme in Cork !!!!.

B) As well as snag issues the council also had a problem I believe with was the title or the mapping of the site, this I am not sure as this delay was not fully explained to us, However we were told this would only be a few weeks and should be sorted, in the mean time we were asked did we want to sign a temporary leasing agreement with the council for the few weeks for 100 euro a week.
This was to enable us to move in, start decorating the house and the snags to be completed. To be honest we felt we HAD to sign for fear of losing our house; this was Easter LAST 2007 we signed and moved in …..And still the snag’s or the houses have not been signed off , even after much following up.

C.) During this year as well as paying 100 Euro week dead money that should be going towards our mortgage (we would now only have 23.5 years of our 25 years left, the interest rates have increased by 1% and the house values have been falling.

While we now do have the site map from the council – last week and snag’s look like finally being finished so paper work should start to be completed- we are still left feeling unhappy.

With over 50 houses in the scheme at 100 Euros a week for over a year and a half - the council seem to have made a profit and our loss!!!! Is this right ( also I think some people may have refused to pay the € 100, where does this leave those who did pay.)

Has any one eles have these problems and does anyone have advice for me, all advice welcome
 
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Re: advice need hugh hugh dealys afforable housing

Lol - have seen your post on another site - I've been a frequent lurcher here for a good while but only just registered today - fell the need to get a lot off my chest..
 
Re: advice need hugh hugh dealys afforable housing

(* slight changes from original - must behave :p)
Yeah I'm one of the people who was also offered a house in that estate too - think it was about Aug in 2006 (early autumn at least) also - So Long ago now. It was really was like winning the lotto - again felt bullied into signing the Letting Agreement by Cork City Council - was afraid they would retract the offer - but felt if only a few weeks as they said will be fine. However a year and a half later - still paying rent to Cork City and the snag lists were still undone by the Builder These builders should be ashamed of themselves, and should be publicly named and shamed in these forums or preferably the national and local press.

As someone who has worked on building sites before, the finish and standard of work is the worst I have ever seen - 1st year apprentice's with only a few weeks experience would have done a better job - every aspect of the job plastering, wiring etc was very slapdash and downright shoddy - lacking any kind of craftsmanship. I've found when putting up cabinets etc that many of the walls are not even square !!! We also found a number of empty beer cans and bottles up in our roof - no wonder the workmanship is so poor. A Lot of my neighbours have said they have found the same in theirs.. it boggles the mind really. Then again could have been kids after breaking into the site too !



We were lucky enough with our issues - some neighbours had severe leaks, no water, no heating etc yet were still expected to pay "rent" !!!


What really shocks me is with the apparent contempt the builders have shown to the people in this estate - we are BUYING these houses with MORTGAGES but their view seems to be " Ah sure they're only AF houses they should be happy with whatever they get" one local FF councillor has been trying to raise the issue and get it resolved so I hope she can help out . I know almost everyone has had to spend a LOT of their own money trying to remedy many of the issues in their houses , especially trying to fix shoddy internal finishing such as plastering and paintings, clearly the Builders seemed to have no intention of resolving them - 1.5 years later would be too late for them to offer as these are jobs that should be done before a house is moved into. The Council should at least apologise to all the people involved or offer to pay for some/all of the repairs that people had to pay for themselves ( in an Ideal world I know)

I'm also amazed they Cork City Council has given this them another contract to do more of the same. A Same really I know of other developments that have been done in the city - Shanakiel for example - apparently engineers' found it hard to find any faults there even with the finish - friend of friend got a house there. Different builder though

Lets hope we all get this issue sorted ASAP - Best of Luck to all


PS for newbies to Affordable Housing - don't let any of this put you off !!! Its a great initiative and the best way to get onto the property ladder and get a Home ! and not a house :)
 
Re: advice need huge huge dealys afforable housing

Hi, we had a similar problem when we bought our AH. We signed what they called a caretakers agreement at the time for 800 a month, again we had no choice but we were ashured that it would go off our mortgage. But i rang and said i wanted it in writing and i said i wanted it to be used as the deposit and the rest of the mortgage. And thats exactly what they did. Iv never heard of just paying it like rent which is realy what happened to you.Id ring and ask why it cant go off your mortgage. The other thing that go me was even tho we had been paying this for two years and had lived there for 2 years the clawback only started when we signed. So realy we have 22 year clawback. So it will be 12 years before it starts dropping. Our houses were thrown up also. There wasnt 1 fully qualified person on site. A friend of my hubby who was a lorry driver left his job and a week later rang us to say he was a brickie on our houses ( he never layed a brick in his life). Every1 has has some sort of major problem with their home. But its 5 years down the line and they are still standing lol.
 
Re: advice need huge huge dealys afforable housing

Tina,

Thank you for your reply- it would be so great if the rent we were paying was taken off the mortgage, the care taker agreement does sound different- we had to sign contracts on the ‘ temporary letting agreement’ its just strange,

Can I ask Tina,- where was your house – county or area –even please, defo going back with this info – looks like paperwork should be sorted soonish………………

p,s really glad to hear - still stnading :) lol
Thanks J
 
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Hi im in dublin Dulin city council were who we delt with. I would have thought that caretakers agreemant and letting agreement are the same. That money should realy go off your mortgage. Id ask a solicitor for advice. And id ask the council why DCC could let us use the money for our mortgage and yet you cant. Also its amazing that our homes were built in 2 different parts of the country by 2 different builders and yet the end result is the same bad workmanship.
 
Thanks for getting back to me Tina thats great info

- isnt it great we have gotten the houses
but i agree same probs different location- interesting result alright.

No talk of them, using the money off main sum- they are looking for a receipt to show we have paid up before we get deeds ( now we are finally at signing papers stage :) - called solicior and he doesnt seem too interested in fighting it! (saya not sure we should rock the boat mmmm ) thing is no idea who to fight it with now in council - its gone from housing dept to legal, i suppose i could call them again. what i cant understand how can 100 a week be called a nominal amount.

god i hate all this hassle- but on a plus side loos like our snag almost done - after a yera a half - :)
 
I have heard this story a lot, the builders aren't interested in the affordable houses and couldn't care less! About the other issue, you accept the council's offer so don't really see what you can do here, you could have stayed with relatives and its not all the council's fault the builders havent completed ! If you had refused to pay the 100 you would have had more a leg to stand on I think
 
tink very true if we knew how it would have gone would have stayed at home in my parents alright, thing is it wasnt really an option it was like ye can take the keys but for the next few weeks will have to pay a 100 a week didnt feel like we had a choice i dont imagine they ever thought it would be over a year and a half, other thing was afraid to lose the house as well.


we are lucky we paid up the rent to few months ago- i know very few of the others here paid anything!!!
but even with this issue the other thing really annoying me is they have our deposit nearly 2 years now!!!! interest rates increased by more then 1% and we would have less time left if for some reason need to avail of the clawback or well even the life of the contract - a girl i know was offered accepted moved in to her house eles where in the city in less then 2 months last year- i was amazed.
 
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