Update on our house purchase: problem vs solution

Hello everyone, it has been a while! Once you start waiting to give an update until you have some really good news to share, because you are sure it is imminent… you are at risk of not sharing ANY updates. Which is, of course, what has happened here. We are still waiting to give you the final update on our house purchase… and this is not it.

We are not the people to spam your inboxes with updates that are just made for the sake of updating, as we promise behind the ‘Subscribe button’. In the first year, things were still very new, and we wanted to share those with anyone who had subscribed, or came to our page/blog in another way. But then life just got to boring-old normal, laced in with some waiting and hope.

When we made and got accepted the offer to the house we hoped to buy, we had anticipated a wait, but not this long a wait! Mind, we are still very much planning on waiting it out, because it is the house that we very much want to buy, but since making the offer almost a year ago, August 2023, there have been a lot of delays because of… well, a combination of bureaucracy and errors made by the sellers all the way back in… 197x.

Let me explain the problem

The house that we are hoping to buy is set on a plot of land of just under two hectares. On that plot of land there are, in terms of buildings:

• the main house, built in 1985
• the old family home, built in 197x
• storage/working buildings attached to the old house
• a chicken coup-ish thing

All paperwork for the main house is in order. However, for the old house, one of the two needed licenses is missing. Back in the day, when the owners bought the land and constructed the old home, they had applied for the licenses to BUILD the original home and storage space, and got to work. What they did not do, is confirm the buildings being built to have the actual license to live in the house to be granted.

Now, one might think it would be easy enough to have the building assessed by an architect, and potentially with some minor changes to be licensed after all. The thing is, since 197x, many things have changed in terms of housing and construction laws. Specifically, after the big wild fires in the area in 2017, the law has changed that no license will be granted to live in a building that is situated within 10 metres of neighbouring land classed as forest. And guess what, that house, is within 10 metres of someone else’s land classed as forest.

The solution

Back in April, we made a trip to the council over there, where we met with the sellers’ architect, the licensing councillor of the council, the estate agent and a representative of the sellers.

That is where we heard that the license they had been fighting for would never be granted by the forestry commission because of the change in laws. The initial ask from the commission was to demolish ALL the buildings not correctly licensed, because they are technically one whole.

The architect, however, has negotiated with the forestry commission, and they came to a pre-agreement. If they were to demolish only the parts of the building (which is actually only the old family home), then they would grant an agricultural license for the remaining buildings.

This was a bit of a blow to us, as we had really hoped to turn the old family home into a small house for family and friends to stay. However, because we’re buying this house, above everything, for ourselves, it was a bummer we could live with, and surely there might and will be other opportunities for family and friends to come and stay (without staying in our own home).

So, we agreed. This was the 2nd week of April, and since then, we have been waiting again for the forestry commission to meet to give the actual ruling that this is an acceptable compromise. The sellers will take care of demolishing the building, as soon as the license proposal is there. The councillor has already said that as soon as that is done, the license will then be granted on the building and we can move to the actual signing of deeds.

April? But… we’re in July now!?

Yes, dear reader, we are in July now. Things don’t move as fast, and what doesn’t help either is that the sellers’ estate agent could do with a course in stakeholder management, as our (WONDERFUL!) estate agent has to really stand her ground to get them to keep us in the loop about ANY progress, even if it is just ‘nothing yet…’. I have JUST sent them another email to ask about the progress, and well, I got back an email that they have ‘no access to email’ because of a local holiday. Yes, you heard that right. An email to say they have no access to email. Ha.

The anxiety is REAL, and we just want to get excited. We now heard the forestry committee was to meet last Friday, but since then, we have not yet heard anything yet again.

One might ask why we’ve not just said: ‘we want to get moving, the licensing bit could be done by ourselves’? Why don’t we and just focus on the land and the main house? That was my first instinct as well. I just want it over and done with, and for the time being we’ll be busy making sure the main house and land get up to an acceptable standard for us to live before we find good uses for the other buildings.

But the thing is, we have been waiting for so long already, and with the local connections that the sellers (still) have there, it is much easier for them to navigate it. In fact, they have already arranged for someone to demolish the building as soon as the go ahead is given. If it is going this slowly when you know people, imagine how slow it would go if you do not yet know anyone and aren’t yet fluent in the language.

So, we wait on…

An extension to the intention to buy/sell contract (CPVC) has been signed and our down payment are still with the sellers.

We have since visited the home twice (from the outside). On one occasion we ran into the caretaker who has been in charge of keeping the land safe. He was also, apparently, in charge of emptying the house and all the outbuildings. When we did the viewing, the big main work building was filled with what looked like scaffolding parts. Now, it was empty and ready to be used as… whatever the hell we want to use it for. All the other clutter was gone too, and the house had already been cleared out too. The man, by the sounds of it, did most of it alone, and he’s well nearing his 80s…

The sellers want to sell to us, and we want to buy it, which means we’ll all have to just go with the flow and remain as patient as we can be, even though it is frustrating.

We’ve kept the identity of the house a secret since our blog back in August last year, but… since then we have shown friends and family pictures, have hinted something at Instagram… so I’ll leave with some generic pictures of the house for now so you can see why we are so hopeful that this will come to a good closure soon!

Hopefully, this time, we won’t have to wait 6 months until the next post, and we can start sharing our DIY progress, which is the main reason we started this blog!