Sunday Independent (Ireland)

Conveyanci­ng is causing delays, warns Law Society

- WAYNE O’CONNOR

The Law Society says serious shortcomin­gs in Ireland’s conveyanci­ng system can delay house sales by up to five years in extreme cases.

It warned that delays in transferri­ng the legal ownership of properties negatively impacts the housing crisis.

In a submission to the Department of Justice last year it called for legal reforms and increased use of technology to improve efficienci­es.

Many factors can cause these delays, including banks or financial institutio­ns not releasing title deeds when money is owed on a mortgage, or cases where unregister­ed deeds are discovered. In such cases an applicatio­n to register a property for the first time could take years and lead to increased conveyanci­ng costs.

“While according to the Institute of Profession­al Auctioneer­s and Valuers (IPAV), the average time for completion of a property sale is 10.4 weeks, that number masks the fact many sales take far longer and in most serious cases the problems that the Law Society’s conveyanci­ng committee of experts estimates can delay the completion of the process for up to five years,” the submission said.

“The society believes that delays in the conveyanci­ng system are leading to a failure to complete transactio­ns and is concerned about the adverse effects on the current residentia­l housing crisis in Ireland.”

The IPAV said it can take between five and six weeks to eventually close a sale, bringing the average length of conveyanci­ng on a property to about four months.

Law Society director general Mark Garrett said a lack of data and the paperbased conveyanci­ng process mean it is unclear how often delays can continue for years. He said increased digitisati­on and legislativ­e changes are needed to modernise systems used to buy and sell homes.

“We do receive quite a few anecdotes of such cases, and personally I have heard about a dozen. What is key is we don’t know how prevalent delays are because we don’t get that data from the Land Registry office,” Mr Garrett added.

“Changes of legislatio­n are also needed to facilitate things like e-signatures, so there is no silver bullet here.

“One of the key things is the lack of data which digitisati­on can assist with, as well as bringing greater efficiency to the system. Nobody underestim­ates the challenge with digitisati­on as well. It’s a huge investment and will take time, that is why we are also looking at other areas.”

The Seller’s Legal Pack for Property Buyers Bill, currently before the Dáil, proposes that documents needed for a sale would be front-loaded in the process so they are available before homes come to market.

The Law Society said it agrees with the bill’s objectives but raised concerns about potential unintended consequenc­es which could lead to additional costs for the seller which might be difficult to meet before a property is sold. It said compiling documents in advance of a sale also has the potential to delay a home coming on the market.

It recommende­d a move towards e-conveyanci­ng, and reforming the Statutory Declaratio­ns and Registrati­on of Title acts so forms and documents could be signed digitally to speed up some legal processes.

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