Fingal affordable home buyers in ‘limbo’ one year after selection for State-subsidised scheme

Affordable housing buyers in north Dublin who were selected by Fingal County Council for homes in Rush one year ago say they have been left in limbo, with their houses unfinished and no date to move in.

In May 2023 the council advertised 52 houses for sale at Hayestown through the affordable housing scheme. Under the initiative, aimed at workers priced out of the property market, homes are offered at a discount with the State taking an equity stake in the property.

Applications for the two- and three-bedroom houses opened in mid-June of last year with prices ranging from €228,000 to €299,500, a discount of up to 22 per cent on market values. Buyers of two-beds could have maximum incomes of just under €60,000, while those applying for three-bed could earn up to €72,000.

Aisling Shanley had previously applied for an affordable housing scheme in nearby Lusk and was thrilled when selected for Hayestown. “I’d been keeping my eyes peeled, so I applied straight away when Hayestown came up,” she said.

In September she was asked to send a booking deposit of €5,000 to Manley Homes and the following month the company asked her to submit her mortgage approval.

“At that point, they said the homes would be ready to move into in January 2024. I was driving by the site fairly frequently — it’s on the way to my grandmother’s — and I could see by November the houses we physically built up, so I put pressure on my bank to get the approval over to them.”

However, after her approval had been submitted, she heard nothing further from the developer. “There was complete radio silence over the month of December at a time when the contracts should have been sent to my solicitor. I would call, they wouldn’t call back, I sent emails, but nothing.”

Eventually, at the end of January, when she had expected to be getting her keys, Ms Shanley sent what she describes as a “polite, but fairly icy” email.

“I was really stressed. I told them it was not okay to just ignore me. I said if there were delays I would understand, these things happen, but you can’t just leave me out in the cold you have to give me an update.”

Following this email, Manley Homes did respond. “They told me there were some issues with the build, but these would soon be resolved and I’d be in in a couple of months.”

February and March went by with no progress and at this stage, Ms Shanley and the other buyers had to seek new mortgage approvals from their banks, as their six-month approval was about to expire. Eventually in the last week of April contracts were issued. However, Ms Shanley has still not seen the inside of her house.

She was told the following month the delays were a result of bad winter weather. “This baffled me because the houses were up last November so you would have thought most of the work after that would have been internal.”

Eventually, she was contacted in June and told the house would be ready for “snagging” — assessing the houses for any problems at the end of the month. Ms Shanley paid a snagging company to meet her at the house on June 28th. It was the first time she had been inside.

“We walked in, and it wasn’t in any way ready. There were wires hanging out of pretty much every wall and the air-to-water heating system, that’s meant to be outside, was sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor. Our snagging guy just had to leave.”

Manley Homes acknowledged the house was not ready and agreed to pay for it to be snagged at a later date, but Ms Shanley says she does not know when that will be.

Two weeks ago she contacted the council and detailed what had been happening. She received an email from Manley Homes last week saying it was working with the ESB to connect the site to electricity.

The council said there had been “delays on site with connections for ESB” and it was the council’s understanding that the “anticipated completion” would happen in September.

An ESB spokesman said there had been “no delays on our part”. ESB technicians had attended the site on June 13th “with a view to finalising the work” but the site had not been ready. The company agreed to return to the site in August, on the understanding the developer would have completed certain necessary works, he said.

Ms Shanley said she has had no update from Manley Homes and has not been informed of a September completion date. “We’re just being left in limbo,” she said.

Manley Homes did not respond to queries.