Closure of Land Registry Office Impacting Property Sales

The complete closure of the Land Registry office and its impact on the sale of houses and property has prompted Deputy Michael Lowry to contact Minister Eoghan Murphy to request that the basic services required to allow for the completion of registration be restored.

The Land Registry is the State authority responsible for the registration of property transactions in Ireland. It provides a system of registration of title and ownership to land and, without it being functional in this capacity, the process grinds to a halt.

Deputy Michael Lowry has informed the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government that his Constituency Office has received several call from constituents and auctioneers outlining the difficulties that have arisen from the stoppage of all activities at the Land Registry office, with the exception of some electronic registrations, due to Covid-19 restrictions. The Land Registry has ceased issuing copy documents, which are a vital part of any transaction, and have ceased opening applications that have been sent into them.   

As applications are not being opened and put on their system, it is not possible to assume that the records are accurate. Therefore anyone at the stage of paying monies for a house or any other asset will not be prepared to release money. This is resulting in banks and cash purchasers now being on the verge of stopping the release of funds on such transactions, even though all other required stages of purchase have been completed.

Deputy Lowry says that this is leading to a most stressful situation for constituents who have contacted him and will continue to cause similar stress for many others if the matter is not promptly resolved.  

While Deputy Lowry does not believe that the intention behind the current situation in the offices of the Land Registry was to lead to a breakdown in property transactions, this has been the unfortunate result.  This current situation also includes transactions pending, which are needed to facilitate social housing as well as any other type of housing.

Deputy Lowry understands that The Law Society has also written to the Department, as well as to Ms. Liz Pope, CEO of the Property Registration Authority, highlighting the concerns and requesting that basic services, such as opening applications and uploading them onto the system and also issuing copy documents be restored.