Sale agreed for a second time - Stuck on house deeds

brenbrenlim

Hey,

I've recently pulled out a deal because the previous seller couldn't get the MUDs for the apartment I was buying. -> https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120717340

I am now sale agreed again to a 2 bedroom house this time, but in a different area of Dublin and since the 2nd of August. However, we have not received any documents/contracts from the seller's solicitor yet.

I've asked the estate agent again today for an update (as I have everything ready on my end, letter of offer etc) and they explained that their solicitor is still waiting for the deeds to come in from the bank. I then asked when was this requested and they said 4 weeks ago...

From what I've been reading online, this seems like a red flag, but what do you think from your experience? Is this something I should worry about? How long does it usually take for the seller's solicitor to get the deeds of a house? Also, how long is it "normal" to wait for this when you're on the buying end? The reason I'm asking this is because I don't want to wait another 6 months just to end up not getting anywhere.

10-10-20

Seems to be the talk of the town at the moment. There were other threads here about slow or non-responsive solicitors too...

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2023/0814/1399670-institute-of-professional-auctioneers-and-valuers-survey/

pat_sconce

Banks are exceptionally slow at present for producing deeds.

Some solicitors are also lethargic in dealing with matters.

The conveyancing system desperately needs a radical overhaul

arctictree

I thought deeds were a thing of the past? I dont even have any for my house.

krinpit

Good luck this time around. The timeframe you’ve mentioned for the deeds doesn’t sound all that long to me. They’ll come through eventually and are unlikely to be the issue which holds everything up.

Alkers

Don't stop looking at properties until you have your keys

Toby22

hi, one of my friends wanted a copy of something on her title deeds, something to do with a boundary wall. She rang her bank and was told it would take 6 to 8 weeks to get the paperwork that she was looking for

crisco10

Took me 7 weeks to get the deeds off AIB for my house back in June. I requested them via my solicitor, waited about 6 weeks (they had warned there was a 4 to 6 week lead time), then followed up directly with AIB Securities. Only to be told that they had only received the request for deeds "yesterday" (?!?). Magically, they appeared in my solicitor's mailbox a day or two later.

All this meant, we were delayed in sending the contracts to our buyer, despite requesting the deeds weeks before even putting the house on the market.

Chris_5339762

The cynic in me says that the banks are doing it slowly so more people miss out on the lower interest rates.

Shoog

Our previous solicitor who was holding our deeds retired without notifying us or returning our deeds. Our current solicitor tells us this is not a major issue since all of the deeds are now held digitally on the land register, the only issue he see's is that we have to prove that the house was built before planning permission was introduced, this should be possible based upon an architects "opinion".

So it seems that deeds should not hold up a sale if you solicitor is prepared to take the alternative path of getting a certified copy of the land registry documents and any necessary covering opinions from qualified individuals.

The annoying thing is that the law society is largely silent on enforcing basic standards of behaviour from solicitors who are holding legally important documents. It would take a legal action against our retired solicitor to get our original deeds back - even if they actually still exist.

brenbrenlim

Thanks, everyone.

It feels like an impossible mission to buy a second-hand property :(

EchoEmber

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120980170#Comment_120980170

As a person who recently just finished the whole mortgage process, you really need to follow-up with the banks and other parties to get stuff done. We went with BOI Life for Life Cover and Mortgage was with BOI too, it took about 2 days for one team to send another team a letter saying we had the required cover. The person in BOI Mortgages team couldn’t contact the other team directly to resolve it, even though they work for the same company. Albeit everyone was nice to deal with and wouldn’t fault them.

zg3409

Ideally try to get the phone number of the seller. One way is to give your number to the auctioneer and ask to discuss direct "curtains and carpets" etc. Auctioneers have little interest in the sale beyond the headline price, and vetting potential purchasers.

Often solicitors will blame other side, say they are waiting on something when they have to do something. It may also be the case the person selling is not ready to leave , a chain, a legal or financial issue, so it's good to try find out the truth.

I myself looked up the planning on a house I wanted to buy and I found out myself that 2 rooms now built were refused planning permission. I found this out before I even bid on the house saving me wasted time. In the end they went for retention but I was long gone. I believe house never sold in the end. The cheek putting a house up for sale where you know you were refused permission but built anyway.

Aph2016

We requested deeds from BOI And it took less than two weeks. Its only when the house is fully paid off that the full title deeds can take up to 8 weeks.

Most of the time there's a delay because solicitors are lazy and haven't requested them. You need to pester everyone during a purchase of a 2nd hand property, its insame how inefficient the process is.

southofthelee

This may be due to seasonality.

Summer time slow-down with solicitors, legal secretaries and admin.

To be expected.

Unfortunately, this leads to a backlog in September.

Kurooi

Not unusual for them to take 4 weeks plus. If you treat this as a red flag you will never own a house. No matter what you do what solicitors you pull what bank you're with and what the EA does, a house purchase/sale takes 3 months plus. If you're impatient 3 weeks in and start howling at delays being red flags.... might need to adjust your expectations.

But by all means keep the pressure on. It's easy for everyone to sit back and wait, and precious days or even weeks get wasted as result. Make both solicitors and the estate agents earn their fees.