[Blog.]
An Irish Property & Engineering Surveyors Blog!
Navigating the Irish property market can feel like walking a tightrope, but buying or selling a home in the West of Ireland doesn’t have to mean stepping into the unknown. Written by the expert structural engineering survey team at My Engineer Ltd, the mypropertysurvey.ie blog delivers clear, independent, and jargon-free guidance on everything from pre-purchase structural surveys and snag lists to rural planning permission, boundary compliance, and grant eligibility. Whether you are a first-time buyer in Galway, a vendor getting ready to sell in Mayo, our blog brings you direct insights straight from the boots on the ground—helping you spot potential structural defects, meet legal requirements, and protect your investment with total confidence.
Rural Homes: The problem with getting planning permission in Ireland
Some people find it difficult to secure planning permission on a rural site in Ireland for various reasons. It is to be generally understood that there is a predisposition to restricting rural housing to those people who may be functionally dependant on the land, or intrinsic to an area by way of background.
Generally, refusal of planning permission for rural housing can fall in to two categories: 1. Person does not have a genuine “housing need” claim (explained later). 2. Technical issues with site.
The Problem Upstairs: Planning Issues with Unauthorised Attic Conversions in Ireland.
Extending your home by converting the attic can be a great way to get extra space in your home. It is probably the most cost effective way to extend, instead of building a bricks and mortar extension, as it is claimed to be half the price! However, converting your attic in Galway & Mayo can have regulatory difficulties in terms of planning permission and building regulation compliance. If you don’t deal with these matters, then it can cause serious difficulties when you come to sell your property, or to get insurance for it. So, it is important that you comply with all of the relevant regulations and standards, in order to sell your property. We will explore some aspects of this in this blog post.
Planning Permission Problems when Buying a House in Ireland.
An important part of buying a home in Galway or Mayo is ensuring that it is planning compliant. As part of our standard property survey package, we do a planning search on your property and check the planning status. A planning search is important to establish when the original property was built or if it was built before planning laws were in place, i.e. before the 1/10/1964 when the Local Government (Planning & Development) Act 1963 was enacted.