5 Things You Should Know when Purchasing Property – Direct from your Solicitor
1. Not all Property Title is the same.
"Good marketable title" is the gold standard for property title. It is defined as property title “of a quality commensurate with prudent standards of current conveyancing practice in Ireland”, meeting Law Society, lender and regulatory criteria. When you buy a property you need to be sure you are obtaining nothing less. Ending up with something that falls short means you will have great difficulty drawing down a loan or re-selling and could find yourself drawn into years of costly dispute. Among the many issues that can threaten the quality of title are incomplete, missing or flawed documents, inadequate planning compliance, rights of way, boundary disputes and tenant or other party claims. Comprehensive examination of the historic and current title documents is called for. The Property Team at Thomas Barry & Company has the experience and skills to protect you.
2. Booking Deposit
We highly recommend that you do not pay a booking deposit to an estate agent or any third party without a covering letter from us. In that letter we will set out the conditions under which any booking deposit is paid and state any booking deposit furnished is to be held in trust for you until contracts are exchanged. This is important because of a 2013 High Court decision. This held that where a deposit is paid to an agent or third party acting for a vendor and the vendor becomes insolvent or goes into liquidation, unless words to this effect are used, the deposit is regarded as an asset of the vendor. In those circumstances the purchaser has no greater rights over it than any other unsecured creditor.
3. Survey - Why do I need a Survey?
You’ve heard the saying “caveat emptor” – Buyer Beware? When purchasing a property, you need to know in advance of any existing faults, visible or hidden. Whether purchasing an existing property or new build, we strongly recommend retaining your own surveyor (usually an engineer or architect) to carry out a detailed structural survey.
4. Converting Loan Approval in Principle to Final Loan Approval.
Just because you have Loan Approval In Principle (“AIP”) does not mean you will get your money. While it is important, AIP is simply an indication of how much a bank thinks you can borrow. It is not a legal document and does not entitle you to receive a mortgage loan for the AIP amount. One of your first steps after you go sale agreed should be to contact your lender to have your AIP converted to specific approval for the property in question. As you may end up retracing your steps and redoing parts of your application, there can be considerable time lags so the sooner this is attended to the better.
5. It Can be done Remotely
Our team has adapted through Covid and works from both remote locations and in-office. As a result, we have evolved our practices to minimise the number of in-office visits required. While you are welcome to call more often if you wish, as a general rule just one or two visits to the office are usually required. Most things we can do remotely and conveniently over the phone, email, post or on Zoom calls.
