Property Law And Conveyancing

Legal Services for Property Include

Purchase and sale of residential property
Purchase and sale of commercial property
Advice to remortgaging your home – Read post
Transfer of property
Advice on stamp duty

Are You Buying a Property- A step by step Guide

Buying property is one of the most stressful things that people will do in their lifetime, especially for those who are unfamiliar with the process. This guide provides a summary of what happens when you decide to buy a house.

What Should I Buy?

In looking for a property and assessing its value you should consider:

• Where the property is (Location, amenities, garden aspect to the sun, etc.)
• Has the property had any mica issues in the past. Will you need to have a mica test carried out ?
• What mortgage will I need to buy it? How much will the repayments be.
• Is it a managed estate? Is there a service charge? What is the level of the service charge? What is included (e.g. refuse collection)?
• What is the BER (Building Energy Rating)?

These questions allow you to take a long-term view of property ownership, especially if you are borrowing to buy and don’t have the luxury of time to wait for a difficult market to pick up.

The First Steps to Buying

Once your offer is accepted, you will place a booking deposit with the sales agent. The booking deposit will not bind you to a purchase until you have signed contracts with us and the Vendor has counter-signed. Once the booking deposit has been paid, the property is taken off the market and the solicitors for the Vendor will send out contracts to us.

At the same you should be organising your loan approval. This is the facility letter that the Bank will issue confirming the amount of the mortgage and the terms on which it is given i.e., the length of the mortgage, the interest rate, whether it is variable or fixed etc. The bank will forward the “loan pack” to us.

Often mortgages come with “fixed” rates. This means that the rate and therefore the repayment will stay fixed for whatever that period of time is and often you can specify what you would like e.g. one, two, three, or five year fixed rates. What you need to note is that if you fix for a certain term and then wish for whatever reason to remortgage with another bank or redeem/pay off the mortgage within that period that a penalty is commonly applied by the Lender for redemption within the fixed rate period.

Signing Contracts

When we have received contracts and the Lender’s letter of offer and loan pack, you will make an appointment come in and sign the contract. We will require (under the Money Laundering Regulations):

• ID Verification (copy of your passport, driver’s licence or Immigration Bureau ID card)
• Address verification – typically a utility (ESB, Gas, phone) bill with your name at that address.

We then will:

• Confirm that the title to the property is good and marketable
• Confirm the purchase price, and any extras or variations that you have agreed (e.g. purchase of contents)
• Confirm the location of the property on the title map.
• Pass you the specification, (new builds) if you have not already seen it
• Advise you in relation to the Management Company, service charge and terms/obligations of membership
• Discuss the completion date
• Go through and advise you on the mortgage loan offer and its terms and ensure that it is the correct offer letter (terms haven’t changed).

Once everything is in order, you will sign the contracts and the loan documents and pay over the balance deposit. The contracts are then countersigned by the Vendor and exchanged. At this point the contract is binding on you for a purchase at the price in the contract, for completion on the closing date agreed and inserted in the contract document.

After You Sign Contracts

Once the contracts in the purchase have been exchanged, we will work with your bank to ensure that the loan funds will be available for the agreed closing date.

During this time you should start organising the final items required for you to organise with your lender, usually as follows:

• Mortgage Protection. This is an insurance policy designed to cover the repayment in full of your mortgage in event of your death.
• Property Structural Insurance/ Fire Cover. If you are purchasing a house, you must insure the property for the re-build cost (not the open market value) so that if the property is destroyed by fire or one of the insured risks, a policy exists to cover the costs of reconstruction.

The Usual obligations under a mortgage are that you must maintain both the property insurance and mortgage protection for the duration of the mortgage.

You will be advised by us of the amount needed to complete the purchase, including the mortgage funds you are borrowing from the bank and costs including stamp duty and registration fees. You must have these funds lodged with us in advance of the closing date.

Buying Your New Property and Getting Your Keys

When the closing dates arrive. The balance of the purchase money is paid over, final checks are carried out by us and if everything is in order, money and keys are released.
Congratulations you now own the property.

After Completion

We will pay the Stamp Duty and the registration of the property in your name in the Property Registry Authority. The rates of stamp duty on purchases for residential property are 1% of the purchase price of the property (up to €1,000,000.00) and 2% of the portion of the purchase price above €1m.

On completion of registration, the Deeds are sent to your Lender where they will be held for the duration of the mortgage. If you are a cash purchaser, we can hold your deeds or you can keep them at home.

We have decades of experience in the purchase, sale and remortgage of residential property. The office has a long-standing tradition of property transactions which is reflected in our considerable expertise in this area. Our service is reflected in the Google reviews our clients give us, and our focus at all times is to ensure the maximum benefit to our clients with the minimum of stress.

Helping you through all stages of conveyancing

Our property solicitors act in transfers of sites from parent to children, acting for homeowners buying or selling their family homes, investors and commercial purchasers. We encourage early instructions from our clients to minimise delay. The earlier in the transaction we receive your instructions to act the more we can assist you in the transaction. We use the latest technology to take as much of the worry and stress out of the transaction for our clients. Clients are kept abreast of developments at all stages during the conveyancing process.

Clients are advised in writing of all the legal costs involved in their transaction. We provide written quotations for property transactions on request.

We also provide practical tips and advice to assist in the transaction and will help and guide you through your mortgage application, insurance, life cover and property survey.

In short we provide an efficient and friendly service to our clients in line with the quality standards that we have set for ourselves.

Letting and Leasing Property

We advise Landlords & Tenants in relation to drafting and negotiating leases, rent reviews, rights to renewal, obligations and entitlements under the lease, statutory entitlements and obligations and registration with the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB).

Contact our conveyancing solicitors for information

If you are thinking of buying, selling, letting or leasing property, refinancing or re-mortgaging get in touch with our property solicitors today,  Call 074 912 9110 or our Dublin office on 01 531 3494.