Some people have noticed that I've been pretty quiet about the house and land for a while. This is because there have been some developments so tiresome I didn't wish to bore everyone with the detail until we had a resolution one way or another.
In short, we're had to change our plans. The land we were suposed to buy is taking an age to be finalised and the behaviour of the developer who is subdividing the land suggests that it might never happen and ultimately we'll end up very disappointed and plans for a house but no land to put it on.
The situation is that the land we want to buy is in the second phase of a subdivision which requires another bridge to complete the third phase. Having put in the bridge across the Pakatuhari river it seems that this is having an adverse effect on the river flow and causing erosion as an unintended consequence. Whilst he still has resource consent (planning permission) to continue with the arrangements on phase 2 his opportunity for phase three is ebbing away because putting another bridge over the river may cause further erosion that the regional council are not prepared to accept. Therefore, the land in phase 3 becomes worthless for housing.
According to the neighbours who have seen the revised plans, he intends to change phase 2 plans and instead of having 4 lots of 4 hectares will have 8 lots of 1.2 hectares and not sell lot 7 (ours) but keep that as the building plot he can sell the remaining phase 3 land with. His ability to realise the value of the land is his primary concern and he's waiting approval from the council to get a new subdivision plan.
This dasterdly deal is being done without our official knowledge but we smelt a rat and decided to look for new opportunities. Fortunately we've found a new piece of land and if all the legalese sorts itself out this week we should be the proud owners of 6 acres in Kaitoke at another location before Christmas. Our architect has done a plan for the existing design of house and cottage to fit and subject to approval by the local council we hope to start building if February.
To say it's been a roller coaster of emotion of "losing" our dream plot is an understatement but being the pragmatists we are we knew it was time to detach ourselves from a dream that was rapidly turning into a nightmare. The vendor is legally bound to sell us the land and we could hang in there and try to insist he fulfils his side of the bargain but all the advice from the lawyers is to walk away and minimise our costs.
Ironically, the new plot of land is within the original budget we set ourselves for land, is closer to town and still has beautiful views across regional parkland. I'll do some photoblogging so you can see the new place. Fingers crossed it all comes through and we can start to live the dream of our house in the country in New Zealand.
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