Buying Your Home

Advice brought to you by Michael Burns, an expert property solicitor. He has held senior positions in some leading financial institutions in Ireland (including Allied Irish Bank plc, Investec plc and KBC) advising on conveyancing issues arising in relation to title deeds and mortgage drawdowns. Click here for a free quote.

Step 1: Obtaining a mortgage

The first step in buying your home is to contact your mortgage broker or you can contact the bank directly yourself. You will need to bring with you the following:

• ID e.g. passport
• Bank statement, usually 6 months
• Proof of address
• Salary certs, usually 3 months
• P 60

If you are applying to a bank that you already hold bank accounts with the bank will be able to access your account without requiring you to order the statements.

When you complete the application form you will be required to consent to an ICB check. This allows the bank to check your credit history (with the Irish Credit Bureau) to see whether or not you have any outstanding loans and whether there were any missed payments.

When you have completed the application form and provided all of the documentation your mortgage application will be assessed. The bank may provide you with what is known as “Approval In Principle” commonly referred to as AIP. This is comparable to an estimate of the amount that you may be approved for and gives you an opportunity to consider potential properties you wish to buy while you wait for the formal Letter of Offer from the bank.

Step 2: Select the property

Once you have chosen the property you wish to purchase you then place an offer on that property. The offer is usually made to the estate agent in charge of selling the property. If your offer is accepted you then pay a booking deposit, and give the estate agent our details.

At this stage you should also contact your mortgage provider and furnish them with the address of the property you are buying and the purchase price.

The estate agent will write to MB Solicitors providing a fee note which will detail the purchase price, address, and vendor’s solicitor details.

Step 3: Contracts for Sale

MB Solicitors will then contact the vendor’s solicitor requesting the contracts for sale to be furnished together with a copy of the title deeds.

We will examine the contracts and title deeds to ensure that the vendor has good title to sell to you and to ensure that there are no onerous conditions in the contract. We will insert any special conditions into the contract which you may require, e.g. if you are applying for a mortgage the special condition would be inserted to state that the contract is dependent on the purchaser being granted mortgage facilities from his/her lending institution.

Step 4: Signing the Contracts for Sale

Once the terms of the contract are agreed and you are happy to proceed, MBSolicitors will arrange for you to sign contracts for sale and together with the mortgage documents, return them to the vendor’s solicitor with the deposit (usually 10% of the purchase price). The vendor’s solicitor will then arrange for them to sign the contracts and will return one part to us. Once contracts have been signed and the deposit paid there is a binding agreement in place.

Step 5: Money

We will then draw down the loan proceeds from the bank.

Step 6: Searches

Our property solicitors will order a set of searches against the vendor. These searches are carried out by a third party service provider to ensure that the vendor is not bankrupt (a bankrupt person cannot sell a property), to check whether there are any plans for road widening, or that there are no judgments or undisclosed mortgages registered against the property.

Step 7: Closing

We will attend the vendor’s solicitor’s office who will provide us with the closing documents, keys and alarm code (if any) in exchange for the balance purchase funds. The sale has now closed and you can take possession of your new property.

Step 8: Stamp duty

Stamp duty is payable on the deed of transfer. Stamp duty is currently at 1% of the purchase price and should be discharged as soon as possible to avoid any late penalties. Once we have received the money, MB Solicitors will pay the stamp duty through revenue on line. The revenue commissioners will then provide us with a receipt for the stamp duty.

Step 9: Registration

Our property solicitors will arrange for you to register as owner of the property and will also register the mortgage with the Property Registration Authority.

Step 10: Completion

Once you are registered as owner and the mortgage is registered on the property we will lodge the title deeds with your bank who will hold onto them until you repay the loan or sell the property.

How long does it take to buy a house?

The whole process can take approximately 8 weeks but this will depend on the complexity of the transaction.

MB Solicitors know that buying your house is one of the most stressful life events. We guarantee to keep you fully updated on all matters to ensure a smooth and stress free process.

For further information and a free consultation please contact our expert property solicitors in our office on the Malahide Road, Dublin 3 by phone on 01 5677343 or use the contact form on our website.