Build Your Own Home

If you have purchased a site or are lucky enough to have been given a site, and decided to build your new home by direct labour you have made a good decision. 

With labour costs at their lowest in years and all materials competitively prices you should be able to build a fine house for a reasonable cost.

Here are some basic steps to bear in mind.

Employ an architect to draw up your plans and apply for planning permission. Planning permission will take three months and maybe longer if additional information is sought by your local authority
Contact a good solicitor who will transfer the site into your name and advise on any tax implications from getting a gift of the site.  

When waiting for planning permission, you should be sourcing tradesmen and getting quotations for labour and materials.

Contact a mortgage broker to arrange your mortgage. You should be able to get 100% of the construction costs if you got a gift of the site, and you will be able to draw down the mortgage in stages.

You will need a qualified architect/engineer to supervise the construction of the property and to certify stage payments for the lender. That person will need to have professional indemnity insurance.

It's important that you do not start the construction without first completing and returning the commencement notice to your local authority.  

You should consider taking out a self-build policy to protect you in event of someone getting injured on site or theft of materials and equipment or damage by vandals to the property. This cover will include public and employers liability.   

Your supervising architect/engineer will usually need to be in attendance when the foundations are been poured. 

Under no circumstances should you start to build on a site without planning permission, arranging for a solicitor to transfer the site into your name and engaging a qualified architect/engineer with professional indemnity insurance supervising the construction.

You need to strictly comply with the conditions of planning and building regulations as your supervising architect/engineer will have to supply a certificate of compliance on completion.   

The following websites contain useful information and help in building your home by direct labour:
www.build4less.ie.
www.buildersquotes.ie
www.onlinetradesmen.ie
www.clevermike.ie

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