carol24

hi all

I have seen an old school house on the web, the realtor is saying it can be used as a house without planning permission , but that I would have to have an architect any converted an old school , if its so easy to do without planning WHY hasn't it been snapped up?

here is the listing
http://www.immobilier-montroulez.com...f=1360&lang=en

Novocastrian

Oh boy, your idea of DIY is a bit different from mine.

I bet you'd spend more than the asking price again to make that habitable. Not to mention running costs.

carol24

yep Novocastrian ... told you nothing scares me
but this is about 3 times what we want to pay ..do you have any idea about why this has not been snatched up ...its way above our budget but surley someone would think it a bargain

Novocastrian

Oh good. I thought you were interested in it.

I don't think anything in France is ever "snatched up" anywhere. Houses typically take years to sell (I'm sure there are exceptions in large cities etc.)

I don't know that area at all but one house we looked at around here in 2007 (which like that one was over budget) is still a vendre today.

EuroTrash

Presumably what you have been told about planning permission, is that it already has outline permission to be turned into a residential property. I would be surprised if you did not still have to submit detailed plans to have your particular project approved, before you can start work.

It looks like a substantial project. Basically it is a shell. You need to connect to the sewerage, is there a fosse or do you need to connect to mains drainage? No heating system - that could be an opportunity to put an eco-friendly system in, but expensive, and heating those high rooms will not be cheap.

Once it is finished the habitation tax risks being very high because the habitable area is so big.

So I think it may be the cost of the project and the ongoing costs of heating and taxes that are putting people off converting it to a private residence, it carries a risk of becoming a money pit and also a millstone - if it's not selling now, it will be even harder to shift as a half-done project. There is a limited market amongst the English these days and I certainly can't see it appealing to the French!

FWIW, it is also possible to buy former schools in Wales for a song, presumably for the same reasons - so much work to do and expensive to run when completed.

Not sure about bargain - certainly not one for the faint hearted.

carol24

it only seems a bargain to me because here in the USA where I live, to get something like that would be outrageous amounts of money . I am going to take a look at it when we come over to France, the realtor has told me its about 5.000 euros to have it mains drains ,I don't mind doing the work because we plan on giving ourselves about 5 yrs to complete any project. we are not in any big hurry

Tweedpipe

The property you mentioned has not been 'snapped-up' simply because today it's no bargain, and has limited appeal - for the valid reasons Novo and ET have indicated.
Traditionally I've always put estate agents in the same pot as used car salesmen. Tread very, very carefully, as agents are now having a really hard time to keep their heads above water, with many closing down. According to a recent analysis, there has been an increase of almost 55% in the number of estate agent bankruptcies in the last year. Some put the figure at between 3000- 3500 agencies.
You risk being told all sorts of stories in order to secure a sale.

Times are very tough, and very unsettled politically speaking, and I'm sad to say things will get worse.

MillieF

OP it IS beautiful, but so are so many properties in the whole of France. France is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever had the honour of living in but...it is very much a buyers market, there are many properties available and if you buy somewhere that needs 'a little bit of loving' it is doubtful that you will recover your costs. I am a woman of experience...I had a few savings and a truly lovely house in France...and now I just have fewer savings...but with many happy memories, so who knows?

carol24

realtor emailed me today with answers to some of my concerns ..she said it would need all the woodwork treated and that,that was common in France for wood work to be rotten

cyrian

Hi Carol
I don't know about buying or selling in the USA - but in France (in a general sense) it is buyer beware.
You do not have the protection that you have in the UK.
It is not normal to have the property surveyed.
In certain departements houses should have a certificate of termite treatment and I think that most should have a certificate of other treatments - woodworm etc. It is common in France for woodwork to be infested.
The houses are not timber-framed as in the USA - they are constructed of timber beams. If these are rotten then a) the house will fall down b) you will not be able to sell it.
Check out the price for treating the woodwork.
IMHO I wouldn't touch the old schoolhouse with a bargepole - perhaps that is why it hasn't been snatched up

Novocastrian

As said, it is quite common for houses in France to be infested with woodworm, but IMHO it isn't common for someone to knowingly buy one in that condition. It can be got rid of by soaking in Xylophene if the damage isn't too severe, but personally I'd just use the Xylophene on my 10 foot barge pole and move on.

cyrian

Hi Carol,

Check out this website: http://www.notaires.fr/notaires/en/home
and specifically this section: http://www.notaires.fr/notaires/en/property-surveys
You should be supplied with a technical report as specified by law.

I have stayed in a friend's house that had woodworm where he had treated it professionally twice in 5 years. This can be a real problem when you come to sell a property unless you have a certificate of guarantee from a professional infestation company. Unless of course you can sell to a non-french person who isn't greatly interested in such problems.

Peabrain

Hi,
Having had a decko at the property you're interested in, I can see why, but alas, I too will have to join the barge-pole brigade, unless of course you can beat the owners down to say 20,000€ and you also have inordinately large sums of cash stashed away in a safe bank, not in Cyprus, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Holland or dare I say it, France. But then if that is the case, why not buy a property a bit closer to the sea that needs less doing and that won't need its own little nuclear power station to heat it.
Having said that, if you're like me, the more you're told not to, the more likely you will be to go ahead.
Beware, and good luck
PB

EuroTrash

It's a question of degree.
A bit of rot, or woodworm that are stopped before they do much damage, is not major.
If there is any hint of 'dry rot', that is a different matter - it is expensive to eradicate, if not treated promptly it can make the house unsafe because the wood literally crumbles away to nothing; the affected wood has to be cut out and replaced, and if not treated properly i.e. if any live spores are left in the wood - it will come back and you have to start the treatment again.

Chatter Static

Dont be fooled by photos on the net, I can show you a school in Orne thats 58k same amount of space the community owns it and can be knocked down in price a fair bit. It looked idilic but what the photos hid was the worst case of rising damp that had buckled every wooden floor in the building. Plus all the new high tension power lines from Cherbourg surrounded the village like a electric moat. you could have put fluorescent tube lights in every room and had free lighting for life.

With a school like that I could see you sinking the cost of the school into a renovation budget. Renovation is about firefighting the unseen costs and when it rains it poors.