Conveyancing

Conveyancing: Buying, Selling or Transferring Property

A new home is the most expensive purchase you are ever likely to make, so you need expert conveyancing advice. A solicitor will act in your best interests and protect you if anything does go wrong. Such advice is just as essential if you are selling your home or transferring property to a family member.

Buying or selling a property can sometimes be a daunting process. At Thomasina Connell Solicitors we do our best to make it as easy as possible. We bring a personal, efficient and cost-effective approach to dealing with your property transactions or transfers.

What is Conveyancing?

Conveyancing is the legal process involved in buying, selling or transferring a home or property. We’re offering you some tips below on buying, selling or transferring your property. So, read on for our expert advice:

Why Do I Need a Solicitor to Buy a House?

There are so many reasons you need a solicitor before buying a house. They are all about protecting you and your investment, as well as making the process easier. So, let’s focus on the main ways your solicitor can help you. We can:

  • Explain how the home-buying process works so you have a full understanding of the complexities involved
  • Advise you at every stage of this process, which can take anything from 4 weeks to 4 months depending on the title produced and the satisfactory title documents returned.
  • Request and review the deeds of the property you want to buy. This is to ensure you have good title to the property. It’s also to ensure that all your services are contained within the boundaries of the property. For example, this includes water, septic tank and boundary walls
  • Communicate with the seller’s solicitor on any issues that arise
  • Resolve any legal issues which arise during the process e.g. rights of way, boundary wall, garage in the neighbour’s garden…
  • Transfer the funds and pay stamp duty,
  • Register you as the owner and the mortgage provider as the lender with the Land Registry.

Why Does it Take So Long to Buy a House?

Because of the huge cost of buying a house, you need to check everything’s in order, and nothing goes wrong. Some things take an expected amount of time, such as:

  • Requesting and reviewing the deeds
  • Searching and investigating the property
  • Preparing contracts
  • Agreeing a price
  • Getting all your information to your solicitor

Unexpected delays can arise as a result of any of the following issues:

  • The current owner bought the property and only has a right to use part of the right of way.
  • Alterations were made to the property without planning permission
  • There is a dispute over the boundary walls of the property. For example, part of the property is in the neighbour’s garden or the neighbour is in your garden. Or perhaps the septic tank is not working properly and there are considerable costs associated with putting that right

How Can I Speed Up Buying a House?

You can speed things up by making sure you give your solicitor all the information they need. This will enable them to move more quickly through the buying process. Things your solicitor needs from you includes:

  • your identity documents, such as copy passport/ driver licence
  • Utility Bill or Bank Statement
  • Confirm the address and price of the property you want to buy
  • have you applied for a mortgage
  • If you have mortgage approval have you all your mortgage documents in place for the bank as this will hold up the drawdown of the funds otherwise.
  • plan to carry out building or renovation work on your new house
  • are buying the house with someone else
  • are selling a home at the same time

Conveyancing and Selling Your House

You may now need a bigger home, to downsize or to move location. So, you need to put your house on the market. You may already have your eye on a property to move to. So, one of your greatest fears may be how long it will take to sell your home.

So, check out our advice on the main things you can do to speed the process up:

  • Do you have the Title Deeds? Are they safe at home, with the bank or with a previous solicitor?
  • Do you have all your key information ready e.g. P.P.S. number, tax type, and your ID such as a passport or driving licence
  • Make sure you can easily find and produce a utility bill or bank statement dated within the last 6 months
  • You need a copy of your marriage certificate, if you are married. Similarly, if you are separated or divorced, you need a copy of your divorce decree/separation agreement.
  • Make sure you have all your Planning Documents – which need to cover any structural changes, Architects Certificate of Compliance with Building Regulations, Planning Permission and Identification Certificate
  • You also need an inventory of contents, if you are including them the sale.
  • Other certificates you may need include clearance, BER (energy rating), NPPR and LPT Certificates – you can ask us about these!

Conveyancing and Voluntary Transfer of Property

You may want to transfer your house, farm, property or land to a family member. This could include passing on a farm to a son or daughter. Or perhaps you want to add your spouse or partner as a joint owner of your property. In such cases, where no money is exchanged, this is called a Voluntary Transfer.

How Does Voluntary Transfer of Property Work?

You transfer the property with a legal document known as a deed of transfer. Both you (the transferor) and the person you are giving the property to (the transferee) need your own separate legal advisors. This is to protect each person involved. For the transfer, it is to make sure there’s no pressure to transfer the property. For the transferee, it’s to check out any taxes, mortgages or charges on the property.

At Thomasina Connell , our main aim is to protect your interests and guide you clearly through the conveyancing process. To book an appointment, just call Thomasina on 057 866 2050 or email: info@thomasinaconnell.ie

We will provide you with a quotation setting out our professional fee together with standard outlay that will be payable by you.  Stamp Duty applies to residential and non-residential property and up to date information on rates can be found at www.revenue.ie   Outlay typically consists of fees payable to the Property Registration Authority, Law Searchers fees and Commissioners fees.  There may also be outlay payable to the Local Authority for letters or certificates where applicable. 

If you are hoping to obtain finance to purchase a property, you will need to contact a Broker or Mortgage Adviser.  The bank will issue loan approval in principle, which gives you an indication of how much money you can borrow at that time.  When you have found the property for you, you apply for full loan approval.  A Mortgage Adviser will advise you of what you need to have in place prior to drawdown of mortgage funds such as life insurance/mortgage protection insurance, home insurance, a valuation and survey.

If there is an estate agent engaged they will issue a Sales Advice Note to the solicitor for the purchaser and the solicitor for the vendor (seller).  The vendor’s solicitor sends the purchaser’s solicitor the Contract for Sale and copy title documentation for the property.  The purchaser’s solicitor carries out a full title review and raises pre-Contract enquires. Once the title is in order and the pre-Contract enquiries are satisfied the purchaser can then proceed to sign the Contracts at which stage the balance 10% Contract deposit is payable.

There is a binding Contract in place once both parties have signed the Contract and the completion date is generally 4 weeks from signing the Contract in a standard transaction.

It is not possible to give a timeline as each transaction is different.  The length of the process depends on many factors such as the time it takes to obtain mortgage funds or if you are part of a “chain”.  We will keep you updated throughout the process and endeavour to complete each transaction as quickly as possible.

Once the transaction formally completes and full purchase monies have been paid over and released.