Buying an unfinished house in Ireland

Before buying an unfinished house, get three things in writing: funding for the purchase and completion, your own professional’s assessment of the works and records, and insurance acceptance for the house as it stands. Settle these before paying a non-refundable deposit or completing the purchase.

A low asking price can hide expensive repairs, missing inspections or a funding gap. When taking over someone else’s part-built dwelling in the Republic of Ireland, check the purchase and completion together. If you already own the build and your contractor has left, start with what to do when your builder goes bust or walks off site.

Confirm how you will pay for both parts

Send the estate agent’s property listing or sales brochure, planning documents, current build stage and estimated remaining cost to your lender or an authorised mortgage broker. Ask whether they will fund this unfinished-house purchase, rather than just whether they offer self-build mortgages. Approval in principle is not a loan offer for the property.

Get a written sequence showing:

• Purchase money: how much can be released to buy the site and existing works, what you must contribute and what conditions must be met first.
• Completion money: the amount left for the remaining works, the professional certificates needed for each release and any money held until completion.
• Valuation: how the present condition and finished value affect the loan, and what happens if the valuation is below your total cost.
• Timing: the offer’s expiry, the deadline to finish and how you will pay bills before the next release.

Commercial self-build mortgages can use staged releases and professional certification. Those arrangements do not establish that a lender will accept a purchase of someone else’s unfinished project. The Local Authority Home Loan self-build route excludes properties already part-built or otherwise commenced when you apply.

Have your solicitor check the purchase contract’s deposit, refund and finance conditions before signing or paying. Keep the survey and funding checks early enough to change your decision. See financing a site, self-build mortgages and funding a gap in the build.

Compare the finished cost, not just the shell price

Commission an independent cost-to-finish assessment: a list of everything needed to reach a compliant, usable home, with prices and allowances for unresolved work. Ask a quantity surveyor to cost it with your engineer or architect’s findings. Price repairs separately from new work so they cannot disappear inside a general finishing allowance.

Invented comparison, not Irish market prices: two shells would become similar finished homes. The figures include VAT where payable. Purchase costs include an assumed allowance for tax, legal work and valuation; replace it with your solicitor’s calculation.

Cost	Shell A	Shell B
Purchase	€150,000	€185,000
Remaining works	€180,000	€145,000
Repairs to existing work	€35,000	€5,000
Professional fees and certification	€20,000	€18,000
Access and services	€20,000	€12,000
Purchase and finance costs	€15,000	€15,000
Contingency	€30,000	€25,000
Total	€450,000	€405,000

Shell A costs €35,000 less to buy but €45,000 more overall. These totals exclude your temporary accommodation and moving costs. Add those for your own plan. The contingency is an invented allowance, not a recommended percentage or a substitute for investigating defects.

Then put dates beside the bills and mortgage releases. Even enough total funding can leave you short on purchase day or before the next certified stage. Use the stage payment planner with the release sequence your lender has accepted.

Have your solicitor check what you are buying

Ask for the title, mapped boundaries, rights of access, legal rights to connect to and maintain services (including pipes or cables crossing someone else’s land), and the planning file before you commit. Your solicitor should establish who can sell the property and what debts secured against the property, restrictions or other people’s legal rights must be resolved before you buy.

Clarify whether loose materials, windows awaiting installation, scaffolding or construction machinery are included and who owns them. A seller’s claim that they paid for something is not enough to settle an unpaid supplier’s ownership claim. If an insolvency practitioner is involved, have your solicitor check their authority and the sale terms.

Ask your architect or engineer to compare what is built with the approved drawings and conditions. Have them and your solicitor resolve:

• The permission’s grant date, expiry, any extension and the time actually left to complete.
• Conditions restricting who may live in the house, including any requirement to demonstrate a connection to the local area, plus payments required by the council, access, wastewater and services.
• Departures from permission, missing approvals and any enforcement correspondence.

Buying does not reset the planning clock or revive expired permission. If the permission has expired, ask what approval is needed before further work and whether the purchase still makes sense. See permission duration and planning conditions.

Inspect the work and the evidence behind it

Appoint your own engineer or architect before agreeing to rely on the shell. Give them access and the seller’s drawings, specifications, inspection records, test results, photographs and certificates. Agree a written report covering the existing work, unresolved questions, repairs and the route to completion.

Ask them to examine weather exposure, water entry, cracking, exposed reinforcement or timber, unfinished roof details, drainage and site safety. Confirm the actual position of water, electricity, road access and wastewater provision rather than accepting “services nearby” as a connection budget.

Concealed foundations, reinforcement, insulation or waterproofing may need opening-up or testing. Ask what can be verified, what it will cost to investigate and what cannot responsibly be certified. Do not assume a new professional can sign retrospectively for unseen work. Agree access for investigations before buying; refusal leaves a risk you still need to price or avoid.

Check whether any structural defects cover exists, whether it can transfer, and what inspections or exclusions would apply. Ask your professional what the survey establishes, what any compliance certificate confirms and what defects insurance covers; none replaces the others.

Establish the building-control route before transfer

Ask the seller for the commencement notice, the notice submitted to building control before construction starts, and its reference number and associated records from the Building Control Management System (BCMS), the online filing system. Ask your professional to establish the rules applicable to the build’s commencement date and whether the notice was valid. Does the build follow the formal inspection and completion-certification process (statutory certification), or did the original owner validly choose the exemption available to certain single dwellings (an opt-out)? Ask for the filed opt-out declaration if that route is claimed. Missing paperwork needs a specific resolution with the building control authority before purchase.

Ask your professional whether this house is covered by the building-control rules for new dwellings that took effect on 1 March 2014. For works covered by those rules, the new owner must notify the building control authority within 14 days of a change of ownership before completion. Arrange the BCMS change-of-owner process with the seller and authority; have your solicitor put responsibility for the handover in the purchase arrangements.

Changing the builder or assigned certifier is a separate notification, also within 14 days. Ask your professional and the authority which forms are needed to appoint the replacements (assignments), and which signed commitments they must provide (undertakings). The assigned certifier is the professional appointed to coordinate statutory inspections and certification. On that route, get the replacement’s agreement and review of existing compliance before work is covered up.

An eligible single dwelling may have a valid opt-out of statutory certification. That removes the assigned-certifier documents, builder’s undertaking and statutory completion certificate; it retains the commencement notice, plans and supporting information showing how the dwelling will comply with Building Regulations, and the document appointing the builder. Have your professional identify the required records for this build and check they are on file. It does not remove Building Regulations duties. Have the authority confirm the applicable change forms; do not demand full-certification undertakings for an opted-out build or assume buying lets you opt out retrospectively.

Your lender may still require its own professional stage certificates. Agree who will provide them and what evidence they need, even where statutory certification was opted out of. See commencement notices and the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations (BCAR) and completion certification.

Get insurance acceptance before taking responsibility

Send an insurer or broker the inspection report, photos, work history and proposed completion plan. Disclose the existing structure, known damage or defects, how long it has stood unoccupied or exposed, when work stopped and when you plan to restart. Say whether you will use a main contractor, hire trades directly or combine the two.

Ask for written confirmation of:

• Acceptance of the already-started build and the existing works included in cover.
• The risks covered while the site is idle and during the remaining work, including your liability to other people.
• The start date and time, aligned with when your solicitor says you take responsibility under the purchase contract.
• The insured amounts, exclusions, excesses, security or weatherproofing conditions, and evidence needed by your lender.

New cover is not a promise to repair historic defects or pay the previous owner’s losses. One available Irish policy excludes existing property unless included in its schedule, the document listing the insured property and cover, and its existing-property extension excludes damage predating the project. The policy also limits cover for repairing defective work. Damage that defective work causes to other insured parts of the house which are free of the defect may be treated differently. Ask the broker to explain the wording that would actually apply to your purchase.

Do not assume the seller’s or a replacement builder’s policy transfers to you. Confirm the owner’s protection and the contractor’s responsibilities separately. Use What cover do I need? for an already-started build, choose your actual delivery route, and take the resulting checklist to the broker. You can request a callback there.

Check schemes against the property’s actual history

An unfinished new dwelling is a different purchase from a previously occupied house now standing vacant. Neither “never lived in” nor “empty for years” establishes eligibility by itself.

• Help to Buy: the property must be newly built and must never have been used, or been suitable for use, as a home. Ask your solicitor and Revenue how this acquisition and completion would be treated before including a refund in your funding. See Help to Buy for self-builders for the other conditions.
• First Home Scheme: its self-build conditions require construction not to have commenced when you sign the First Home Scheme Customer Contract. Do not include that self-build funding for an already-started shell. Ask the scheme to assess any proposed alternative route; see the mortgage guide’s scheme section.
• Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant: the standard scheme requires a property built before 2008 and vacant for at least two years before application, alongside its other conditions. A newer unfinished shell does not meet the age rule. For an older property, get the council’s eligibility decision on its history rather than assuming vacancy is enough. See the refurbishment grant guide.

Your decision before money becomes non-refundable

Keep one purchase file with the written funding sequence, survey and cost-to-finish plan, planning/title advice, building-control handover and insurance acceptance. Record unresolved items with a price and a person responsible for resolving them.

If a lender, professional or insurer cannot yet accept the position, ask your solicitor what conditions or further investigations would protect you before committing. If the seller will not allow the checks, decide with that uncertainty visible rather than treating a cheap shell as a funded, certifiable home.