Finally!!

Finally, we have all the paper work needed for our architect to get started. Yesterday we received conditions of gas hookup and surveyors plans of the property, so we scanned/photocopied those and the water/sewage and electricity company documents and emailed and posted to the architect. Now it's just a matter of time until the architectural plans are done (4 weeks, we hope), and then we apply for a building permit, which can take up to two months to go through (assuming there aren't any problems with the application). So while the paperwork is in, the waiting game hasn't finished...

Still more purchases

Building on a budget we really weren't expecting to have a lot of modern, new nice things in the home...

yet we are in luck.

Reduced from 2499zł to 1699zł, and then to 799zł on Allegro (Polish equivallent of eBay) we have this beautiful ex-display, only very minimally damaged cabinet and vanity with basin and tap Barcelona from Belliani.

At market, these gorgeous modern taps alone are probably worth some 500zł, so we couldn't pass this up.

Now the questions are - how do we get it from Szczecin to Warsaw and where do we keep it?

Mein Kampf

It is really frustrating that week to week something is supposed to be done, but week after week you keep being told to wait longer.

It happened when we were trying to purchase land and it is continuing after that as well. We really thought it would all be downhill after we finally got the land. I mean, seriously, who takes a year to buy a little property?

But no downhills for us. In order to start work on construction plans, our architect needs technical requirements for water, sewage, gas and electricity connections and a topographic (or some sort of) map. These were supposed to take 2-3  weeks, when we applied on December 19.
After Christmas we heard that the officials were probably in holiday-mode and weren't planning to knuckle back down before their Christmas break. Then we heard the same about the New Year's break. After the New Year we were told they'll get into it now, probably 2-3 weeks from now...
and so it's been five weeks and we're waiting.

Meanwhile, our architect is working dilligently to find any and all grants and subsidies to eco-building in Poland and is well researched and in touch all the time. Also, she's 5 months pregnant! And wants to have the blueprints ready for us by the end of February so she can focus on herself and baby in the third trimester, and certainly to have her part behind her by the time baby comes!

So fingers crossed things start picking up pace...

To rent or not to rent

So we are currently paying 1500zł in rent per month for our dingy smelly dark old apartment in Warsaw, when we have a perfectly good piece of property out in beautiful Łomianki.

In the short to medium term we were planning the purchase of a vehicle. We currently have a beautiful 1992 Honda Del Sol.

But it's a two seater and not being able to give someone a lift, transport anything more than two bags of groceries and not even take it for long drives (it's only as comfortable as a matchbox car can be) is starting to be a niusance. In the event of any familial growth, it's also not going to be big enough.

Besides, I am going to need a vehicle the minute we move to Łomianki, if not sooner, as regular trips to the building site are going to be necessary and husband and I don't work the same hours

I'm thinking to stick with Japanese makes, perhaps Toyota Avensis Verso, Avensis or Corolla Verso?  Basically an MPVish model.

In the medium to long term we were also planning the purchase of a caravan. We love travel, but it's expensive, and opting to DIY some meals is a great way to save money. Fuel costs often equate that of flights, having a car when you get whereever you're going is super comfortable, generally there are huge benefits.

However, if we push the purchase up a few months, or indeed both purchses, could we live on site and not pay rent to some random guy who happens to have inherited this dodgy apartment after his dead mother?

Certainly, if we were to do that, then the caravan would pay for itself. They're only about three month's rent-worth.


We'd probably want one with a self-contained bathroom if we were to live in it while building, possibly not if only for tourism purposes, a functional kitchen and a heather, and at least a 4 berth, so while living there we can have designated dining and sleeping areas and when travelling it can accommodate our family and friends and in future offspring.

The main risk is that we don't finish the build before winter. It gets too cold here to live in a caravan. Or so my husband thinks. I mean, they are fitted with a heater, and how long would it take to heat that little space... but if we weren't able to stay there, where would we go?

But I'm obviously hopeful we'll move in sometime during autumn...

So we continue to ponder this. Perhaps when plans are done and we actually start building we'll have a better idea of when we might finish the house and be able to move in. Then we can make a more informed choice.

Sold!

As of December 18 we are land-owners.

I promised a long and winding road, and indeed it has been. I haven't posted because of increasingly volatile conditions up til December and because the cost of the land was so cheap, we didn't want to run the risk of someone snapping it up from under us.  We'd put in the hard yards to get it all subdivided and legally defined, we wanted to make sure it was ours!

Basically, a surveyor subdivided the land to match about the shape I outlined for you in the last post, making sure the property line was the agreed three meters away from the edge of the owner's terrace and the plot equalled the legislated 800sqm minimum for a building site.

Subsequently we had three lot numbers.

We went to the notary's office in April and agreed to purchase the land by August 15.

Why that date? Well, what we found out was that the owner was late with her mortgage repayment one month and was slapped a 100zł/day fine. Appalled, she decided she would just not pay her mortgage! So the bank decided to calculate what her debt on the properties we wanted to buy would be at her going rate by August 15.

So our notary agreement stated that of the agreed sale amoung, by August 15 we would pay to her creditor, another amount to another creditor (yes, she has multiple loans against the property) and the remainder to her.

However, the catch was that she had to get statements from her banks saying that if her debt was paid - and read not as paid off, but just to get her up to date with her repayments and cover the cost of fines - they would take the mortgage of the three properties we wanted to buy and only be for the remaining five properties created after the subdivision.

Come August 15, we didn't have these documents from her, and without them we were unable to get a loan from a bank for the purchase of our properties!

The clauses in the contract we weren't too stressed that the notary agreement was now outdated, because there was a clause in it saying she could not sell the property to anyone else for 12 months. OK, this is Poland, and such a clause is no guarantee, but we were in constant contact with her and weren't too stressed.

But week after week of "I should get it tomorrow", October rolled around and still nothing, and the situation was getting desperate.

She called us in to discuss.

We now found out that she was so in debt that they were going to cut off her electricity after the weekend and that a bailiff was going to seize some of her property to cover the unpaid taxes (how much financial trouble can one woman get herself in)!

We came to this risky agreement - we would give her a certain amount of cash to cover some of her debts in exchange for her putting our name in place of hers on the deeds. That would make us the owners of the property, but until it was paid off she was the creditor, so it was kind of a win win.

The day after we went to the notary to write up and sign this agreement, social security seized some of her property. We breathed a massive sigh of relief. Our three pieces of land were saved by that clever maneuver! Had we not had the properties in our name, they would have been taken by the bailiff and what bank would have loaned us money for the purchase of land seized by another creditor, and a government one at that!

However with good news came bad... we needed to wait for the courts to formally put our names on the deeds, then we waited, and waited, and waited for the court or local government or heavens knows which authority to make the three subdivided properties into one, with its own number and what not.

That actually took a really long time, but fortunately with the land in our name and finally with statements from the banks with December 16 promises on value of debt to be paid to free up the property from their creditorship, we had what we needed to satisfy the banks that we could get a loan.

We put our loan applications in to a bunch of banks, they took longer than they said they would to go through the paperwork so when one of them offered us a loan, we took it. Of course we would have preferred to wait for the offers to come in and pick the best one, but after two rejections we didn't wait for anymore offers, signed the paper work the next day, and we missed deadline anyway!!!

Fortunately, the creditor didn't charge us or the owner fines for another day's lateness on the repayment - I actually think they were glad to get anything on that loan at all!

And lucky for us, we don't have any more hoops to jump through and nothing else to worry about. They land is ours and the only debt on it is our own, regularly paid 30 year mortgage!

Negotiations

I haven't written for a while, but not so much has been happening on the home ownership/straw bale building front... until yesterday.

We met with the owner of the property I shared with you some posts back.Generally, the situation is such that she is in some financial trouble and needs the money from the sale of some or all of her property. Great for us, we negotiated the land at a bargain 276zł/sqm (compare that to the 500zł/sqm the neighbouring properties are going for!!) We also negotiated that the 760sqm on offer be extended to 800sqm, as this is the minimum council requirement for residential development. We had a good old time with a 30 metre long tape measure, negotiating how close to the existing building our property would reach and getting to visualize what will sometime soon be ours. Me, of course, in my "power suit" (I joke, but I was expecting negotiations over tea in her living room and not outdoors in the wind) and 7cm heels.

Here is an outline of what's going on with the property:

Basically, what you can see here is the current property (the big red box), a section of land already subdivided (smaller red box towards the front, brother of the owner of the larger property), green lines marking where our property lines will be, an access rode (marked in cyan, which will need to be extended to the second green line) some trees and neighbouring buildings. You've also got the longitude and latitude there, so you can check it out on google earth!

Now the long and winding road (thank you, Mr Lennon) begins.

Firstly, the owner needs to get a surveyor to mark out on council maps pretty much what I have done above with the green lines. Then the owner needs to go to the bank and provide me with their declaration that they will and can remove this piece of the property from the mortgage agreement she has with them. Finally by the end of the week, I expect, we will go to the notary, set out how we will go forward and make a down payment.

Then, the owner will apply to the council for the land to be divided as outlined by the surveyor, meanwhile she will also apply to council for a building permit for a small residential property towards the front of the land (front being nearest the street, next to her brother's house), as she won't be able to develop this land after subdivision - she will no longer have the required minimum 800sqm.

I don't know what else will need to be done. I hope that once we have architectural designs, which might be in the next 2 months, so before the subdivision and ownership procedures are finalized, the owner will apply  for a building permit for us, so it gets approved before the land is ours, and we can move onto the site as soon as its ours. It takes about a month to get the permit, so it would be nice to have when we get the property, rather than having to wait before we start developing our land.

So that's the long and incomplete version. For now we wait to sign notary papers, in the meantime, both our super friendly real estate agent and ourselves will be making notes of what should be included in this agreement.

Meanwhile, I've also found another potential source for straw bales. Early last year we found a farmer who could sell us bales from this years' harvest at 4zł a piece, and that's still current (note to self, should be calling him some day soon) but my husband's cousins fiance's parents also have a few hundred bales, very dry, from about 2 years ago, so these would be preferable. Also need to be calling him sometime soon to work out how many bales, what size, how tight they are and how much they might want for the bales (hoping for mates rates!)

More Purchases

As of less than an our, Husband and I are proud owners of some cast iron stairs from near Dover, UK, which will be coming out to Poland sometime next week, again, courtesy of eBay.

Watching those last seconds tick away on the auction and clinking our classes of red as the "You have just purchased" email came through were very moving moments for us, our build is getting really real.

Pressure is on to find a piece of land, get the architectural/administrative things underway and get this party started.

But I'll worry about that tomorrow.

For now, here is the new addition to our family ;)