This may be a long one, but you need to have the details to advise me properly!!

At end of 06, I moved from a village where I grew up to Morecambe a town where I'm bloody glad I didn't grow up.

Me and Mr. always talked about moving back to the nice village for the sake of our kids, if - big if - we could find a bargain. It'd have to be a bargain, as house prices there have gone silly there, but nothing is shifting and now they're knocking bungalows down for fun to pave the way for huge detached houses about a metre apart.

Anyway back in 05 ? - somebody obtained planning permission for and started a little "farm" of houses. At the back are three barn conversions - unfinished, unsold. At the road side there is a 5 bed, then two 3-beds, then a 4 bed. All are linked by garages so it goes
5bed-garage-garage-3bed-3bed-garage-garage-4bed.
They are effectively a terrace! But they are calling them all detached.

These are now after all this time still unfinished. It seems nobody will touch them as they were initially up for ridiculous amounts. They have since dropped the price last year I think and still they are ALL sat empty and completely unfinished. One 3-bed is furnished and complete as a show home but the other has no kitchen, no bathroom suite, no plugs etc.
The 4bed and 5 bed are unfinished too.

Anyway, my mum needs to move as I explained in a diff. thread. So we went round them today. I didn't like the layout of the 3-beds and can see plainly why they are still sat there unsold. Saying they are £180k each. The kitchen diner is not - it's just a kitchen and the WC comes straight off it, then a poky under stairs cupboard off that. The kitchen has a tiny window. The lounges just don't appear to be able to fit necessary furniture in comfortably.
The drives are not finished, the back gardens are plain mud.

Good points are the large-ish south facing gardens, the large garages and the upstairs is fine. Bit small bathroom but liveable.

There has been all sorts of rumours about these houses in the village - the man has gone bankrupt on them or something and they've been off repossessed/in receivership or something thereabouts. The EA said he'd bought a ferrari expecting to be rich off them. He listed them with a quite exclusive EA at first and had a load of posh brochures done (all sat in one of the houses). The EA today turned out to be a bloke me and my sister, who came along too, know anyway. He didn't even attempt to hide his complete un-enthusiam for the houses. He pointed all the bad faults, compared it to his council semi!, and basically told us they don't even want profit for them they just want shut!

So my mum is thinking she can grab a bargain on the completed one, as she needs to be getting on and buying soon before her tenancy ends. My sister and hubby who loves a big shiny new house to move into they are now thinking of going for the 5-bed.

They do have good gardens and a conservatory type extension joining the kitchen and garage doors would be lovely as a dining living space, without losing that much garden. They are re-workable to try and make the layout better. But of course it would cost how much to take on a shell of a house and extend it???

We are all going to see them again on Sat, and are debating whether to go in with a three strong proposal to offer on the 5-bed and the two 3-beds, hoping that the owner/bank whoever will see sense and want to offload three of the four houses in one go for a bargain price.

But then I googled them and a parish council meeting thing came up saying
"The monitoring inspector has noted that many of the planning conditions have not been met and the site is in breach of planning regulations. He added that Lancashire County Council did not want a roadside footway, but they are talking to Wyre Borough Council about this"
I take it this is rectifiable or already has been seen to - ? otherwise they wouldn't still market them.
They are not particularly good looking houses. There has been another "starter" homes lot of six built in a little estate a bit further into the village. All finished, turfed, tarmaced etc. all for £199k and all still unsold. They don't seem to realise that these are still too expensive for the people that would want them

So if any of you are still with me, given what I have droned on about , what is your reaction to these?
Mr, and I agree, believes that there must be some reason a builder or developer has not swooped in and bought them. There is a persistant rumour they'll have to be bulldozed if they don't get sold eventually. As houses go, they are a bit crappy layout but liveable.

Do you think it's worth the hassle, money etc. to try and sell in Heysham to get my kids back to a village with a nice little school, near our families?
How cheeky an offer would you put forward, given the problems selling, the lull in the market and obvious work?
If you want to have a squint on RM, put location pilling, and it's holme farm.

thank you for your considerable time

On RM the 4 and 5 bed are on page 2, the one Mum's thinking about buying is (plot 3 furnished) on page 5, along with the other ones in the village - Bluebell cottages - and the one I'm thinking about is plot 2 top of page 6.

MMM - I can see the pros and the cons here! I think that the planning issues should be fairly easy to get clear, though. Old Mr Hatster and young Miss L. Hatster (i.e. my father in law and my sister) are both planners, and if it was there patch, I would think they would both be very happy to explain the planning situation to somebody interested in buying houses that were sitting around unsold. (Frankly, some planners just like going on about planning to anyone that will listen ;-). So I'd ring up the planning department and ask to speak to whoever is responsible for that set of houses. If the first person isn't very helpful, it's always worth phoning back and trying to get hold of someone else - I know from what my sister tells me that she's always happy to do more than her job, whereas some colleagues would like to do a little less than theirs!

I've just had a nose at the brochures for the 3 beds. I can see the problems you mentioned BUT

- the window and the door in the kitchen look to me like scope for a lovely set of French windows going out onto a little terrace in the south facing garden ;-)
- and couldn't the under-stairs cupboard be accessed from

Sounds to me like what you need (when the planning's cleared up) is a good old builder to go round with you and say 'yes' or 'no' to your ideas.

The local council can't be happy about these houses standing empty and unfinished - again, is there scope for negotiations with them about the pathways that should or shouldn't be there? After all, a family returning to live in the village where they grew up - that's got to be the kind of thing they like?

Hello HC,
What an interesting thread! I can see your dilemma. Tempting thought it may be, there are reasons why these properties remain unsold. You have highlighted many of these yourself.

On the EAs brochure, the paragraph I find particularly worrying is "At the time of writing, we are unable to confirm the tenure of the property..." As if they weren't sure who owned the land they built on! There could be a problem when you come to sell.

If you managed to do a deal with the seller, how would you feel if the rest of the houses remained unsold and were bulldozed...?

Hi Donna, I think the tenure thing could be because they were taken off the man? So it could be him or the bank possibly - maybe that's what it means - I had clocked that.

I'd only consider it if mum and sister bought the two and there was only the four bed left. Presumably that would sell for a bargain price too if people saw that the others were sold and made pretty outside (I'd be moving that anchor of mine )

I think the planning conditions breach might have included wheelchair access because they are a zigzag up to the door like a community centre or a shop! They look a hasty afterthought.

Haster I'd thought of putting a conservatory extension out of the kitchen, left open plan with door and window out. It'd go to the garage and that end half of the garage would be enclosed off, plastered etc. I think they have a window already, south facing, and that would be a playroom for the gippers leading off my open plan conservatory.
My conservatory would be half brick - but it's be heritage brick and cream render. I'd leave the heritage brick walls of the garage and house back as brick as I LOVE brick in houses! I've always wanted an open plan conservatory

Piece of string question - how much do you reckon for flooring, kitchen, bathroom, gardens, my half conservatory, fittings, tarmac etc. - how little can I offer for this house?!

Oh and I'd access the cupboard from in the kitchen, block the original door of the WC and either enter it the cupboard way or from the extension.

but you know I've not really given them much thought!

make sure the developer doesn't decorate the house, the decor is mingin'

Trust me it's worse in the flesh! They appear to think they have gone modern! In the kitchen of the finished one that breakfast bar is basically in your way so you bang into it - I know as I tried all the cupboards to make a point. It's the most ridiculous layout! And the colours are just a bachelor-pad colour blind dreadful mix. I didn't go upstairs in that one as MiniHC was screaming at that point and had to be removed.

I rung the planning and the man was slightly unhelpful saying as a purchaser is doesn't too good for relations basically sneaking around trying to find the problems. Then he passed me over to a lovely girl who was an enforcement officer jobby who's had experience with these houses. She said the man ran out of money and bankrupted himself on these and another lot he took on and the bank took them over. The planning problem was that the original developer didn't want to put a footpath past them on the roadside. The girl said he wasn't allowed to connect the services until he'd done the footpath for them.
Anyway it appears the bank have instructed another developer to finish them to get their money, so a real bargain is looking more unlikely. The footpath is there now so that must've been sorted. The drives look dug up and there is pipes etc sticking up through them -?

Let's hope they put a better decor in and a better kitchen "scheme".
So I've no idea what price they'll want now if they're going to be finished. Maybe I'll wait another year and then snap one up if they're still empty!

quote:

I rung the planning

talking like a villager again already!

I meant to say 'one rang the planning offices...'

If you check with the Land Registry you may well find there is a 'charge' against the properties to cover bankruptcy and debts etc.
Mel.

well, maybe this could be even more of a chance? If you treat it as buying a new build and a chance to have some input into the final product. You could contact the bank and say you'll buy three houses off them for a certain price but you want the developer to do X, Y and Z and you want a Blah NCH or whatever it is new build guarantee on it? I would have thought the bank would jump at the chance to get some lolly back.

quote:

Originally posted by holy cheeses:
At end of 06, I moved from a village where I grew up to Morecambe a town where I'm bloody glad I didn't grow up.

Well, Morcombe was good enough for Thora Hird & Eric Morcombe!

Good luck, HC. Sounds like quite a good plan, and itwould be great for your mother and her other half to get onto the property ladder!

I suppose the major questions I would have are would I be happy living there? It sounds like you would all be making a big compromise on your homes for the sake of perhaps a good price and being back in the area that you prefer, close to each other (they do say, location, location, location though?). Also, would the potential bargain price be totally negated by work that you all would wish to do to the properties?

Gosh HC! Contemplating a move so soon - it will take me at least another 5 years... I was so shocked I could not bring myself to reply until now . Have to say Pilling would be a better environment for the cheeselets, but what was it that took you to the Morecambe metrolopis in the first place? Hadn't realised until now that you were from Over Wyre rather than Over Lune, which makes your original move, forgive me, bizarre!
I have seen the development and I did thing it wasn't great but it has potential and it is in a nice place. It looks like you've got the planning issues sorted out - I wouldn't expect any difficulties anyway as WBC would give a hole in the ground planning permission if you called it affordable housing.
Good Luck,
SM

You've been past them? What were you doing in Pilling?

Yes I was born and bred in Over Wyre. It was quite a bizarre move - hence when I said where I was moving to people would blurt out "uuurggghh why?" before they could stop themselves. I wanted to buy a house and I quite like Morecambe. I didn't know anything about it's depressing history you see! I never researched further than my road. I still like it, it's handy for things and it is trying, bless it.
But yes, Pilling would be quite an improvement for my children. But at the time we had to think about security as our landlord was a fool and there was nowhere cheap with 3 beds to rent. Obviously Morecambe was the next logical step

quote:

WBC would give a hole in the ground planning permission if you called it affordable housing.

we had our names down on a list to try and scam a cheap house in the village saying that the heating wasn't adequate and we were in danger of being thrown out. But the affordable housing that was promised never turned up.

It was promised again on this big site in the village that's just been bulldozed. But it turns out there's 10 -? possibly , houses for housing association and then

... three bed town houses starting at 237K and about fourteen five bed detached for 400k+
thanks for the affordability of them ones. I'll take two please.

OK, I was lost!
Real answer is that I have a customer in Pilling so I go there now and again. Otherwise I would have to be lost to get there. I'm not saying it is in the twilight zone or anything like that, honest.

Oh yes. Hole in ground = affordable housing, bricks and mortar = palatial residence. I know people that aspire to a caravan in Over Wyre, good luck again!
SM