So, You Are Selling Your House?

If you had a mortgage, they are most likely with your bank. If you have paid off your mortgage, the bank could have sent you back the title deeds and they could be sitting in your attic or other safe place that you have put them. In any event, it is important that you know exactly where your title deeds are as we will require these to sell your property. The best place to hold your title deeds is in your solicitor’s safe. 

 

If your title deeds are lost, your solicitor will have to reconstruct title and you will have to take out title insurance, which is expensive. In addition, given the current market, lost title deeds could affect the resale value of your property!!! 

If your property was an investment property did you pay the NPPR? This could cost you €7,230 if you did not. If you did pay the NPPR, we will require the receipts or a Certificate of Discharge, if you have applied for same. If the property was not an investment property and was a family home and your principle private residence, we will need you to sign a Declaration confirming this and you may also need to provide bills showing that this was your address for each year from 2009-2013. 

This will need to be paid up to date and, in some cases, this can be an issue especially if people have gotten into arrears and not rectified them. If this is the case then we will need to pay the Local Property Tax either from the proceeds of sale or you will need to pay the Local Property Tax prior to the closing of the matter. 

Other things that can cause problems in the sale of a house are if you converted the attic/garage or put on an extension and did not get an Opinion on Compliance with Planning and Building Regulations. Even if planning was not required for the works to be carried out an Opinion on Compliance of an Architect or Engineer will be necessary no matter what your builder happens to say. 

If you did not get an Opinion on Compliance at the time, we will need to engage an architect or engineer to certify the works that you did carry out. This may not always be possible, especially if the works were carried out within the last 7 years and there maybe situations where you will have to apply for retention planning permission or get the original engineer or builder back to provide certification for the works that were done at the time. As you can imagine this can take time. 

If you have rented the property out in the last two years or indeed still have a tenant in it, it could take quite some time to serve notice on the tenant and remove them. 

If your property is a rent pressure zone, we will need to disclose to any potential purchaser what rent was charged and any registration you have with Residential Tenancies Board.