What expenses are there owning a home?

armabelle

My wife and I have some cash saved up and want to buy a house. What other charges come with buying a house other than the cost of the house in Ireland. Say we saved up 250k and buy a house for 250k. Are there other charges above that besides stamp duty which is 1% in Ireland if I am not mistaken?

Also, once we have the house and have moved in, are there any charges we have to pay or can we be free of any monthly expenditure?

odyssey06

Property Tax
House Insurance
Water Charges
Refuse Charges
Management Fee (if in shared estate or apartment complex)
TV Licence

HeidiHeidi

Heat
Electricity
Repairs

Also legal fees for the purchase

eeguy

Unless you find a perfect home you may need thousands for appliances, furniture redecorating, plus maintenance of everything.

You'll probably get the place insulated to the nines and throw LED bulbs into everything too.
Even things like buying a lawnmower and garden tools can set you back serious dosh.

armabelle

odyssey06 wrote: »

Property Tax
House Insurance
Water Charges
Refuse Charges
Management Fee (if in shared estate or apartment complex)
TV Licence

As far as I can see these are all optional except for property tax right (wont be looking in an estate or shared complex)? Oh and don't have a TV.

eeguy

If you want your marriage to survive buy a decent dishwasher.

odyssey06

armabelle wrote: »

As far as I can see these are all optional except for property tax right (wont be looking in an estate or shared complex)? Oh and don't have a TV.

Refuse charges optional? What are you going to do with your waste?

Treating House Insurance as optional is not a course I would advise.

mansize

House insurance is compulsory for a mortgage

armabelle

eeguy wrote: »

If you want your marriage to survive buy a decent dishwasher.

neither of us like dishwashers and find them to be useless applianes, we wash the old fashioned way

armabelle

mansize wrote: »

House insurance is compulsory for a mortgage

no mortgage, 250k cash

K.Flyer

armabelle wrote: »

As far as I can see these are all optional except for property tax right (wont be looking in an estate or shared complex)? Oh and don't have a TV.

What would you plan to do with your household refuse?
You either pay to have it collected or bring it to the civic dump centre and pay there.

armabelle

odyssey06 wrote: »

Refuse charges optional? What are you going to do with your waste?

Treating House Insurance as optional is not a course I would advise.

yes I understand it is necessary but I was only enquiring about the home charges for now. So like property tax was a good one. Is that 0.18% monthly? or annual?

iguana

odyssey06 wrote: »

Refuse charges optional? What are you going to do with your waste?

Treating House Insurance as optional is not a course I would advise.

I don't really pay refuse charges. I minimise rubbish, recycle at the bring centre. Dogs and compost bin takes care of food waste. And for anything else I use a Big Bin a few times a year which takes 2 sacks of rubbish for €7.

I own my house outright. It needed about €10k worth of work when I bought it, but I got a very, very significant discount on the asking price (about 45% off as the issue was structural, so unmortgageable). I had budgeted an awful lot more for the work, so it's been a very pleasant surprise. That kind of luck is very rare though. I pay electricity every 2 months, media package monthly, house insurance, tv license and property tax monthly. White goods and most of the previous resident's furniture came with the house. I sold quite a bit of that and replaced it with either furniture I bought second hand or things I owned previously, like our beds. So that cost me around €500. And I've probably spent about €200 on paint, varnish, a garden strimmer, etc. Got lots of other stuff, like my lawnmower, free from relatives or stuff given away on adverts. I bought fruit trees, compost, set up a mini veg and herb garden which cost €50-100, but hopefully they'll eventually save me money. My biggest spend has probably been on garden toys, like swings, trampoline, large paddling pool.

Gumbo

mansize wrote: »

House insurance is compulsory for a mortgage

No it's not. It's advisable but not compulsory. Mortgage protection is compulsory.

thomasm

Solicitors Fees
Surveyors Report Fee
BER Cert Fee if not in place(not sure if this is vendors expense)
Valuation Fee

Sleeper12

kceire wrote:

No it's not. It's advisable but not compulsory. Mortgage protection is compulsory.

You have these mixed up. House insurance is compulsory. The mortgage company owns the house or at least has a steak in it. You must have house insurance to protect their investment.
What would happen if the house burned to the ground without insurance.

Dr.Rieux

Sleeper12 wrote: »

You have these mixed up. House insurance is compulsory. The mortgage company owns the house or at least has a steak in it. You must have house insurance to protect their investment.
What would happen if the house burned to the ground without insurance.

Both are compulsory if you've a mortgage. Home insurance is certainly advisable without a mortgage.

Gumbo

Sleeper12 wrote: »

You have these mixed up. House insurance is compulsory. The mortgage company owns the house or at least has a steak in it. You must have house insurance to protect their investment.
What would happen if the house burned to the ground without insurance.

Ohh I'm not saying it's not needed, but I've gone through 3 mortgages and 2 re-mortgages since 2006 and not one bank asked for house insurance. Mortgage protection policy (ie a life policy) is compulsory and funds won't be released without it in place.

CiniO

thomasm wrote: »

Solicitors Fees
Surveyors Report Fee
BER Cert Fee if not in place(not sure if this is vendors expense)
Valuation Fee

I don't think those are compulsory... Are they?

My understanding is that when buying a house (for cash) person needs to pay solicitor to arrange legal deeds stuff, pay stamp duty, and house is his.

Then after that paying property tax is compulsory once per annum.
And if one would like to keep basic utilities like electricity and water, payment of bills on those is required, as otherwise they will be cut off.

I'm not sure about BER cert.

Would there be anything else?

Sleeper12

CiniO wrote:

I'm not sure about BER cert.

House sale can't go through without ber but its the seller pays for that. Ber is also good for 10 years so seller may already have one if they got an insulating grant

mewe

kceire wrote:

Ohh I'm not saying it's not needed, but I've gone through 3 mortgages and 2 re-mortgages since 2006 and not one bank asked for house insurance. Mortgage protection policy (ie a life policy) is compulsory and funds won't be released without it in place.

Don't know what bank you've been using because for us house insurance was compulsory and funds wouldn't be released without it.

Gumbo

CiniO wrote: »

I don't think those are compulsory... Are they?

My understanding is that when buying a house (for cash) person needs to pay solicitor to arrange legal deeds stuff, pay stamp duty, and house is his.

Then after that paying property tax is compulsory once per annum.
And if one would like to keep basic utilities like electricity and water, payment of bills on those is required, as otherwise they will be cut off.

I'm not sure about BER cert.

Would there be anything else?

Surveyors report is for peace of mind to the buyer. With no mortgage, it's optional.

BER cert is compulsory when placing the house on the market. So it must have one issued by the seller, so the OP wouldn't have to worry about it.

mewe wrote: »

Don't know what bank you've been using because for us house insurance was compulsory and funds wouldn't be released without it.

That's strange. I used a broker (Omega Financial) in 2004, but can't recall what bank. They had letters rather than a name if you get me, then bank of Scotland in 2006, PTSB in 2013 and Ulster Bank in 2015. Maybe I slipped through the cracks. Still, I agree it's 100% needed.

CiniO

kceire wrote: »

Still, I agree it's 100% needed.

I'd strongly argue with that.

From one side you indeed own a property which is worth sh1t load of money, and it would be pity if it all went up with smoke in a fire.

On the other hand - what are the chances like? How many houses get burnt per year in Ireland?
I'd say people have much bigger chance dying in car accident or dying with some disease, than having their house burnt.

If you don't live in flood liable area, there's hardly much more that can damage the whole house.

Anything else, like break in, pipe burst, etc, will probably be cheaper to fix yourself when it happens, than paying house insurance premium for years.

4ensic15

CiniO wrote: »

I'd strongly argue with that.

From one side you indeed own a property which is worth sh1t load of money, and it would be pity if it all went up with smoke in a fire.

On the other hand - what are the chances like? How many houses get burnt per year in Ireland?
I'd say people have much bigger chance dying in car accident or dying with some disease, than having their house burnt.

If you don't live in flood liable area, there's hardly much more that can damage the whole house.

Anything else, like break in, pipe burst, etc, will probably be cheaper to fix yourself when it happens, than paying house insurance premium for years.

There are numerous property claims on property. I had a major claim within 18 months of moving in. Not insuring is utterly illogical. pipes burst, oil can leak (more expensive to repair than a fire). Just because the odds are low doesn't mean it won't happen. When it does happen it could be ruinous.

armabelle

thomasm wrote: »

Solicitors Fees
Surveyors Report Fee
BER Cert Fee if not in place(not sure if this is vendors expense)
Valuation Fee

Are these compulsory when buying a home? How much do you think these could cost on a 250k house?

thankyou!

iguana

armabelle wrote: »

Are these compulsory when buying a home? How much do you think these could cost on a 250k house?

thankyou!

The solicitor's fee is compulsory and will also come with land registry fees. Shop around for a solicitor as fees can vary. And when you get your cheapest quote do some research on that solicitor because sometimes the fee reflects the service. But not always, my solicitor was the one who gave me the cheapest quote and she was just fantastic with what was a difficult purchase.

A survey isn't essential when you don't have a mortgage. But unless you or your partner are qualified in this area, you'd be an idiot not to get one. Properties have problems that can be difficult for an untrained person to see but could cost you tens of thousands (or more) to rectify. Skipping the survey can be a false economy. As is skipping insurance.

armabelle

Dr.Rieux wrote: »

Both are compulsory if you've a mortgage. Home insurance is certainly advisable without a mortgage.

yes many things are advisable when you can afford then :P

filbert the fox

armabelle wrote: »

Are these compulsory when buying a home? How much do you think these could cost on a 250k house?

thankyou!

you wouldn't pay €25,000 for a used car without a mechanic so why would you not employ someone to check out your quarter of a million euro investment?

armabelle

iguana wrote: »

The solicitor's fee is compulsory and will also come with land registry fees. Shop around for a solicitor as fees can vary. And when you get your cheapest quote do some research on that solicitor because sometimes the fee reflects the service. But not always, my solicitor was the one who gave me the cheapest quote and she was just fantastic with what was a difficult purchase.

A survey isn't essential when you don't have a mortgage. But unless you or your partner are qualified in this area, you'd be an idiot not to get one. Properties have problems that can be difficult for an untrained person to see but could cost you tens of thousands (or more) to rectify. Skipping the survey can be a false economy. As is skipping insurance.

Oh ok so there could be something wrong with the house and we buy it and have a big problem on our hands? Something like that?

Ok please could you tell me if this is correct. So to buy the house we have a cost of 250 000 on a 250 000 house and also

1) Solicitors fees (requirement)
2) Stamp (requirement)
3) Survey fees (optional but recommended)

then to maintain the house we have

1) Property tax (requirement)
2) Electricity, heating, waste and internet (we don't own a TV so no license)

Is this correct?

filbert the fox

armabelle wrote: »

Oh ok so there could be something wrong with the house and we buy it and have a big problem on our hands? Something like that?

Ok please could you tell me if this is correct. So to buy the house we have a cost of 250 000 on a 250 000 house and also

1) Solicitors fees (requirement)
2) Stamp (requirement)
3) Survey fees (optional but recommended)

then to maintain the house we have

1) Property tax (requirement)
2) Electricity, heating, waste and internet (we don't own a TV so no license)

Is this correct?

Water charges haven't gone away you know. Also there's talk of a charge for technology to "catch" those people who only watch telly on line.

armabelle

filbert the fox wrote: »

Water charges haven't gone away you know. Also there's talk of a charge for technology to "catch" those people who only watch telly on line.

I don't "watch" telly online or anywhere else and I am only talking about charges today not the possibility of any other charges. So do do you think that the list of charges above are complete?