What Searches Do I Need When Buying a Property?

There are a number of mandatory searches associated with purchasing a home in Ireland. A solicitor, once instructed, will conduct these checks on your behalf.

Why Do You Need Property Searches?

Before buying a home, it’s important to have a professional inspect the property and identify any problems. You and your lender will be safe from harm in this scenario (if you have a mortgage). If you don’t, you might end up with a home that doesn’t meet zoning requirements or doesn’t even belong to the seller. You may find yourself in a tight financial spot if you are unable to recoup the costs associated with this.

What Property Searches Are Carried Out?

Some searches are done prior to the contract being signed, while others are done on the day of completion and are referred to as closing day searches.

The pre-contract searches that should be performed on a home purchase include –

Planning search – a zoning verification search through a planning database. To rephrase: whether or not it is meant for commercial or residential use. It also includes information about pending or approved construction projects and previous planning applications in the area. You may not want to buy that quaint cottage on the edge of Dublin if a new housing development is going up next door, so it’s important to know this beforehand. To prevent this scenario from happening, it might be best to partner up with law searchers in Dublin.

Compulsory Purchase Order search. This search helps you find whether the government has appropriated private property, most often for use in building roads. Moreover, it implies that the seller is not the only person in possession of the property’s title documents.

If you are buying a property to rent it out, read our guide for first-time landlords.

Closing day searches

To make sure that nothing has changed since the contract was signed, searches must be performed on the day of closing. Therefore, they must be completed right before the deal is sealed. Closing day searches for a home purchase typically consist of:

Land Registry Search. Searches of the Land Registry can verify the seller’s ownership and legal right to sell the property.

Judgment search. A judgment search will reveal if the seller has any outstanding judgments or liens that could affect the sale. When a lender sues a homeowner for failing to pay a loan, the homeowner is in default. Any pending lawsuits against the property or the vendor are also disclosed.

Bankruptcy Search. A search for the vendor’s name in the bankruptcy register. If they are found there, they don’t have the right to sell the house.

Sheriff and Revenue Sheriff searches. For leasehold properties, sheriff and revenue sheriff searches were once obligatory in order to reveal whether or not the seller was in debt. For the acquisition of solely residential leasehold property, this is no longer required.

Registry of Deeds search. In the case of an unregistered property, a search of the Registry of Deeds can verify ownership.

If any red flags are found during these investigations, the seller’s attorney and you can discuss the situation. There could be an elementary rationale for this. If not, you might reconsider moving forward with the deal.