There is a thread already on this, and I was looking for it this morning, as I need to post a reply. My sister is in the process of selling her house to the Council at the moment and it is a complete and utter nightmare.
My sister was unaware that it was the Council buying the house until her solicitor advised her when the contact details were passed on by the Auctioneer.
Contracts were issued over three weeks ago - the Solicitor left it two weeks before following up on. These were lost, had to be re-issued.
Survey was completed by whoever Council asked, this was also lost, and when my sisters solicitor chased up on the Contracts, was told, no that price was never agreed and had no record of requesting a survey on the property. About a week later, they located their survey documentation
My sister is under pressure to sign for her new house now, so she really needs the contracts back now.
Last week the Solicitor phoned again, to be told the girl dealing with this purchase is out, no body else knew anything. The Solicitor spoke to the girl this Monday, to be told the contracts would be returned on Tuesday.
Today following up on this, the Solicitor gets a call to state, I dont know who told them that contracts would be back that quick, its only up with someone for approval now, so you wont have your contracts back until after Christmas at the earliest.
This now means that the house my sister was buying in Celbridge could fall through, as the people are emigrating to America and had given her a good price for a "quick" sale.
Plus, the Council dont pay a deposit and pay the full amount on closing, which is also very unsatisfactory. Everything is done on their terms and the sellers feel that the Council dont care whether it goes through or not, which you would not have with a private buyer.
My sister would tell anyone in this position, do not sell to the Council under any circumstances, and if she thought she could sell quickly now to somebody else, would do so.