Seller's Legal Pack: Motion
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-27
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Anne Rabbitte (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach

I move amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after “That Seanad Éireann:”, and substitute the following:
“recalls that:
- a Housing for All Expert Group on Conveyancing and Probate was established in late 2023 to review the processes in Ireland and recommend changes to reduce costs and delays for home-purchasers;
- this group published its Final Report and Recommendations in July 2024;
- the associated Implementation Group was established in September 2024 to oversee the implementation of recommendations;
- it is independently chaired and comprises professionals, industry bodies (including the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV)) and government agencies to reduce the delays and costs associated with conveyancing and probate processes;
acknowledges that:
- the group is working towards a national target of an eight-week turnaround for conveyancing and has supported initiatives like the eProbate project and amendments to the Central Bank Consumer Protection Code to achieve these goals;
- that there has been significant progress achieved to date including:
- the creation of a public information pack (available online) to improve knowledge of the process, minimise delays and equip home-buyers with the information required to engage efficiently with professional conveyancing services;
- the provision of a Best Practice Charter, setting out principles of best practice for the main professions involved in the delivery of conveyancing services;
- an initial baseline survey run by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to gauge experience of consumers in conveyancing process;
- a revised Consumer Protection Code published by the Central Bank, requiring banks, retail credit firms and credit servicing firms to provide title deeds within ten working days of a request for the purposes of a conveyance;
- options to get more titles registered in the Land Registry more quickly and to expedite the registration of properties/transfer of deeds;
- the prioritisation of draft legislation to support increased use of Statements of Truth to replace certain hard copy affidavits or statutory declarations in the conveyancing process;
- greater efficiencies in response times for information requests from the various stakeholders;
- the development of a proposal for a national conveyancing system;
- the Courts Service roll-out of a reform programme to the probate process, which has already seen significant reduction in processing times, including the implementation of eProbate;
- the extensive work by the Expert Group and Implementation Group into identifying areas in conveyancing processes, where the lack of key information and certification/confirmation on a timely basis is causing delays and has instigated a regulatory process via both the Property Services Regulatory Authority and the Legal Services Regulatory Authority; this will directly address the necessity for early collection of categories of pre-sale information such as those identified in the Seller's Legal Pack for Property Buyers Bill 2021;
- in June of 2025, the Government agreed that the work of the Group will continue, to further progress the recommendations identified by the Expert Group and that this work remains ongoing;
resolves that:
- good progress has been made in respect of the work of the Interdepartmental Group, which is progressing many of the issues of concern and that the principles contained in the Seller's Legal Pack for Property Buyers Bill 2021 can initially be realised on a non-statutory footing;
- there are many advantages to this approach, notwithstanding the speed in which the measures can be progressed, as well as the in-built flexibility it provides in terms of quickly adjusting to any issues of concern arising;
- this work continues through the medium of the Interdepartmental Group to ensure measured improvements in the availability of pre-sale information and ensuring that the targeted eight-weeks conveyancing process is fully realised in Ireland.”
I acknowledge the presence of former colleague, former Senator Higgins, and the work that former colleague, Marc McSharry did on what has been proposed here this evening. All of that said, the Government has a counter-motion.
In December 2023, the expert group was established under the Housing for All action plan to review the conveyancing and the probate process in Ireland from a user perspective, and recommend changes to be implemented quickly and easily to reduce costs and delays for home purchasers. The group comprised a strong mix of legal, policymaking, operational and hands-on consumer experts, and they reported at the end of June 2024. The report of the expert group on conveyancing and probate was approved by the Government on 16 July 2024. The Government also approved the establishment of a new conveyancing and probate implementation group, tasked with beginning the implementation of short-term recommendations, as well as developing a detailed programme, including assigned ownership and committed timelines to implement the full set of recommendations. The group, comprised of an independent chair alongside key stakeholders including the IPAV, relevant Departments, agencies and statutory bodies, met for the first time on 23 September 2024 and has subsequently met on eight occasions. The group agreed that actions need to be taken to ensure that much more is done regarding the collection of information, necessary certification, title deeds, etc., early in the sale process, at its earliest point of engagement with the estate agent and the vendor's solicitor. The group concluded that several measures should be tried first before going down a legislative route, for example, stated obligations and-or professional regulatory measures to require solicitors and estate agents to alert sellers to the necessity for pre-sale preparation, including obtaining the necessary documentation and certification.
The implementation group has given further consideration to the types of issues that can either collapse or significantly delay a conveyancing process and concluded that efforts should be aimed at mechanisms to ensure a key essential baseline of information on properties for sale is collected at the pre-sale stage, there should be a means to prevent property from going to the market unless this information has been collected, and the three parties likely to have most control in ensuring the necessary information is collected are vendors, estate agents and vendors' solicitors. The group identified nine specific categories of pre-sale information that is not collected early in a conveyancing process and is more likely to cause delays beyond the target of the eight-week conveyancing process. Several options with varying degrees of enforceability were considered with a view to delivering better information at the earliest stage in a conveyancing process, legislation, regulation and best practice. Arising from these discussions it was agreed that the two relevant regulatory bodies, the Property Services Regulatory Authority, PSRA, and the LSRA, would be asked to embark on delivering regulatory codes of practice within the measures already provided in their respective governing legislation for the regulatory process. Other measures already completed included public awareness, a publication of a best practice charter and a number of other actions to reduce the key known delays in the provision of third party information. However, it is intended that this area be kept under review and, in particular, if an implementation of codes of practice approach does not result in efficiencies expected, alternative options will be visited in the future. I thank the Senators for bringing the motion forward.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:33+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-27