Sydney Upper North Shore Bush Fire Prone House

I'm a regular reader of this forum and this is my first post. I found there are several forum members like SeaChange living in Upper North Shore so I would ask some questions regarding bush fire prone houses in this area.

Today we found a house which is a perfect match for our house hunting in the Upper North Shore area. After we check the purchase contract, we have a big concern. This house is bush fire prone so I have the following questions.

1. The agent told me the vendor is looking for mid $1m and it will be auctioned within weeks. Since both my wife and I really love it, I would like to take it before auction, which is possible as shared by the agent. Since it's bush fire prone, I want to know how to give the agent an offer? I assume to offer $100k less than the expectation. Is that an offer good for me? How to use this bush fire prone condition as a bargaining power?

2. I also assume that we need the bank to value the house before I sign the contract. For example, if the bank that will loan the house just values it $1.3m, I would not agree to pay the house for $1.4m. I believe most banks will try to under-value a bush fire prone house so I assume it's very necessary to seek how the bank thinks about the house before we make a deal. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

3. Finally I assume the insurance will be very expensive for such a bush fire prone house so I want to know a ballpark figure for such a house we need to pay for the insurance compant each year.

Sorry if I have asked too many questions.
 
I'm a regular reader of this forum and this is my first post. I found there are several forum members like SeaChange living in Upper North Shore so I would ask some questions regarding bush fire prone houses in this area.

Today we found a house which is a perfect match for our house hunting in the Upper North Shore area. After we check the purchase contract, we have a big concern. This house is bush fire prone so I have the following questions.

1. The agent told me the vendor is looking for mid $1m and it will be auctioned within weeks. Since both my wife and I really love it, I would like to take it before auction, which is possible as shared by the agent. Since it's bush fire prone, I want to know how to give the agent an offer? I assume to offer $100k less than the expectation. Is that an offer good for me? How to use this bush fire prone condition as a bargaining power?
.

I've heard it said that 1/3 of houses on the north shore are supposedly bush fire affected. For most people who live up there it's not an issue. There are some places where it might actually be a risk and those are the places of the edge of the ridges on the various periphery on of areas on the west like West pymble and South Turramurra and on the east such as north Turramurra.

The cynic in me says that the bush fire regularions were as much about controlling higher density development on the edges than any thing else. A significant amount of development was stopped in North turramurra as a result of such restrictions. We're probably going to be selling a house soon that in the zone outside the high risk. If the agent told be they were concerned about the bush fire risk I'd say ( and would expect the agent to say ) Well , maybe you should look at an other area outside the north shore.

Any of the picturesquely situated properties in the bush on the north shore will be affected and then are some rediculous pieces of zoning such as around the bush school and around the glade.

I don't recall any houses being lost to bush fire in the north shore since we moved in 1994 , though we did have a bush fire about 200 mtres away two weeks after moving in. I think the main causaulty of that one were a few singed fences.

2. I also assume that we need the bank to value the house before I sign the contract. For example, if the bank that will loan the house just values it $1.3m, I would not agree to pay the house for $1.4m. I believe most banks will try to under-value a bush fire prone house so I assume it's very necessary to seek how the bank thinks about the house before we make a deal. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. .

I don't think the banks will not look at bush fire zoning as a seperate risk factor , but I may be wrong .


3. Finally I assume the insurance will be very expensive for such a bush fire prone house so I want to know a ballpark figure for such a house we need to pay for the insurance compant each year.

Sorry if I have asked too many questions.

We're in a bush fire risk zone , don't think our insurance is expensive. Very few houses get lost to bush fire . I'm sure more would get lost to household fires . If you're worried ring GIO , but if you put that as a reason to the agent , even if they're keeping a straight face, they'd be having a chuckle inside.

Canberra was an aberation .

Cliff
 
Hi

This is also my first post, longtime lurker:)

I live in the Blue Mountains, backing onto a gully and have seen a couple of bushfires in my backyard.

To be honest, a bushfire zone wouldn't bother me at all, unless the house is backing onto bush that is in a very open area where it is obvious to the eye that a fire storm coming through would not be nice.

It all comes down to where you want to be.


I don't think that a bushfire zone would really come into the bargaining side of things. Just my opinion.

GOODLUCK
 
If you go ahead with the purchase then why dont you install a sytem that will make you safer/feel safer. I know of a real good system that sells here in WA that cost about 3k to set up. simple. easy to operate, very very little water required.
The bloke designed it for those especially living in bushfire zone areas.

l have nothing to do with this product at all l was just very very impressed by it, and its simplicity.

cheers yadreamin
 
I don't believe Canberra (bushfires) were an aberration.

I was working 2km from the fires on the day they took hold. Nobody believed that anything would happen. After all, there ahd been fires before in other parts of Australia, and the firies managed to control them OK, with little loss of property.

Even when I was at work (on a Saturday, when there was little information- my only available info was from the Net, which was not up to date, and from a TV, whcih was also not up to date) I didn't know what was happening until somebody came by to say that some of the roads out of my building were already closed.

That was in Weston. The building I was working in was damaged, and homes around were burnt down.

OK, there was a lot of open bushland where the fires had a chance to build up before hitting the inhabited area.

But, when they hit, there were ember attacks for a big area around.

I was 20km away from any burnt out houses, and we were having burnt out leaves dropping around.

In the North Shore, it may not be nearly as likely as Canberra. But it's still possible. Some of the suburbs hit in Canberra were not nearly as leafy as a lot of the North Shore.

I'd be suspecting that more vulnerable areas might be Hornsby and north, especially anything adjoining Kuringai Chase National Park. Though anything big there could affect a oot more not close by.
 
Hi there Geoff
I was there too in Canberra with my 2 daughters and sister - and the only reason we weren't in the house in Duffy (which was destroyed) was we were visiting my Mum in hospital who was receiving treatment for Cancer.

I always thought my brother's property at Springwood in the Blue Mountains of Sydney was more vulnerable - it fronts the national park at Sassafras gully. The year before the fires in Canberra we had experienced the fires in the Blue Mountains - and had escaped to Canberra to get away from the fires.
We lost 2 properties in the Canberra bushfires - both in Duffy.

Guys it happens - just be adequately insured and do what you can to protect your property - look into all the bushfire protection options from gutter protection, wire screens on windows to shutters on windows. If you love the property - do it anyway.
 
Guys,

Thanks for sharing and sorry for taking so long time to reply.

All of you have made perfect sense regarding bush fire risk. I really appreciate your input. After I double check the agent, bank and insurance, bushfire can not be a big concern in upper north shore. So that is simply my over-reaction to the low price of that house. We thought that house was priced low due to bushfire. After we ask the solicitor to review the contract, we finally come to know why such house is priced at such a range.

There is a significant portion of the bush land in the backyard does not belong to that house. There is no physical boundary regarding that. Additionally, there is wire fence far away from the legal boundary which completely confuses all potential buyers. If you did not look at the contract, you simply assume the wire fence is the legal boundary of the house, which is completely wrong. What's worse, the site plan provided by the agent also mistakenly indicates the wire fence is the legal boundary. Put simply, there are around 500 sqm in the backyard which does not belong to the house. However, if you did not look at the contract carefully, you simply assume that portion of backyard belongs to you so you will probably assume you're getting a great deal! Please note that portion of backyard includes a very stylish bushwalking track which should make many potential buyers over-excited!

Tommorrow the house will be auctioned. I will see if any bidders have looked at the contract carefully. If they try to bid very high, the chance of failing to read the contract carefully is very high, which should be very funny.
 
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