Q&A

Your property questions answered

Bank won't give us the mortgage we need

Q Our purchase of a house has been going smoothly up until now but we have hit a serious road block.

Before we could draw down the mortgage the bank insisted on its own valuation which has come at nearly €30,000 less than we bid and the bank is adjusting its LTV mortgage offer accordingly. We can't come up with that and feel that valuation is simply wrong. Is there anything we can do?

A The credit crunch has meant that banks are becoming more and more conservative about lending practices. It's normal for a lender in any market to seek a valuation and that valuation is usually done by an estate agent picked from the bank's panel. You could, independently, get another estate agent in the area to do a valuation and see what figure they come up - and if it's higher then you could go back to the lender to see if you can negotiate. Your options are limited however, because you need the money and the bank will only lend it on its own terms. Your best bet is to go back to the seller with a new bid (a €30,000 reduction) to reflect the bank's valuation - they won't like it but they may come to the conclusion that the bank is right in this new market and take your new lower offer.

Can we change one-bed into a two-bed?

Q Our one-bed apartment is large at nearly 900sq ft. Ideally we would now prefer a two-bed apartment but couldn't afford to move right at the moment. There is space to create a second bedroom (there's even a window in the appropriate place) so it could work. Do we need planning permission?

A When planning permission was granted for your apartment block, one of the factors the planners would have taken into account was the overall density of the scheme (X number of one-beds, X two-beds, etc) so by changing your one-bed into a two-bed you would be altering that density - which leads us to believe that you would need planning permission. When the block was originally built, it's not unreasonable to assume that the builder too would have preferred to put a two-bed unit into that 900sq ft but was forbidden by planning restrictions. Also your lease may have clauses forbidding the erection of partition walls in general, or changing the internal structure of your apartment, so you should check that.

However, if despite all this you went ahead and put up the required partitions and ignored planning requirements and any restrictions in your lease, you would have to put the whole lot right when you eventually came to sell up as any buyer's solicitor would question the presence of the second bedroom.

Talk to your local planner to get a more specific opinion about your particular apartment.

Your questions

Send your queries to Property questions, The Irish Times, The Irish Times Building, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2 or email propertyquestions@irish-times.ie. Unfortunately it is not possible to respond to all questions. The above is a representative sample of queries received. This column is a readers' service and is not intended to replace professional advice. No individual correspondence will be entered into.