Law reform in the new year to make buying and selling property easier

It may take as little as five days to buy and sell property if reform of land and conveyancing law is, as expected, enacted by the Dáil early in the new year

WHEN HOUSE and apartment buyers return to the market, they will find that the old ways of buying and selling property are undergoing change. The law is not standing still - whatever about the market.

Major reforms are on the way. We can look forward to change from what can be an exasperating rigmarole - for buyers and sellers taking up to seven weeks in and out of solicitors' offices just to buy an ordinary house or apartment - to possibly little more than five days.

The changes will be unprecedented - little more than five days from a decision to buy to becoming the registered owner. Equally importantly, mortgage lenders will also be required to co-operate.

In the process, Ireland will go from antiquated and cumbersome 19th century legal practices to 21st century conveyancing done totally by e-mail. Simplification, reduced costs and greatly reduced stress levels beckon.

In tandem with these moves towards introduction of modern conveyancing methods, Government proposals to reform land and conveyancing law are expected to be given detailed third stage consideration by a committee of the Dáil and be enacted into law early in the new year.

The Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Bill's 124 sections will be debated line by line. There is widespread support for reform of the law and the fundamental sections in the Bill are unlikely to be changed. Following enactment, the way will then be open for the long-awaited reform of procedures in buying and selling. Already, both the Land Registry and the Revenue Commissioners have embraced electronic processing of information.

This forthcoming and fundamental law reform is widely regarded as long overdue. More than 150 pre-1922 laws, going back to the Statute of Westminster 1285, which surprisingly still remain the law of this country, will be repealed. They include such obscure legislation as the Land Drainage Act, 1845 and the Tithe Rentcharge (Ireland) Act 1838 - laws which contribute little but can delay and clutter the process of buying and selling ordinary properties.

Modernisation of Irish property law, which is being spearheaded and championed by the Law Reform Commission, led by former Supreme Court Justice Mrs Catherine McGuinness, will open the way for practice reforms, including electronic conveyancing. This will usher in huge improvements in transparency and speed for buying and selling properties.

Towards this end, a return to basics is strongly argued for in a submission to the Law Reform Commission from the Law Society, representing the country's solicitors. The submission made earlier this year noted what every solicitor in the country has been bemoaning to deaf ears for many years - that buying and selling houses and apartments has been used by the State for its own purposes.

These include using conveyancing for the purpose of collecting taxes, for implementing the Government's own social policies and for seeking enforcement of various laws. These are not what the conveyancing process was designed for.

"As a result, even the most basic residential conveyance now requires multiple enquiries that have little to do with ownership, transfer and security of title," noted the submission. Buyers' solicitors are now required to send to vendors' solicitors extensive requisitions or enquiries on title which go well beyond title matters.

"All these enquiries add to the complexity of the conveyancing process and, ultimately, to the cost to the consumer," according to the Law Society submission. Only matters relating to the transfer of title should be retained. Frustrated solicitors with experience of long and unnecessarily complicated conveyancing transactions will agree.

It is also strongly argued that other fundamental changes must also be introduced. These include a move from the basic starting point of "buyer beware" when buying a property to the seller being obliged to disclose faults in a property.

No longer would unscrupulous estate agents be entitled, or indeed conscientious estate agents obliged, to conceal defects in a property from would-be buyers. Disclosure to buyers would be required.

Also, unknown numbers of properties in this country have planning problems attached to them. They include unauthorised garage conversions, extensions built without planning permission, and planning permissions not properly complied with. Both an amnesty in some matters and a thorough and reliable planning register is also sought by the Law Society. Again, reforms that are seen as long overdue.

It could take five years or more for full electronic conveyancing and other major improvements to take effect. But a start is being made with the imminent changes in the law.

Pat Igoe is a solicitor in Blackrock, Co Dublin