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GAZETTE
DECEMBER 1996
New
Certificate of title
system is
'major breakthrough'
A new standard
Certificate of title
system
for residential property loan transactions
has been agreed between the Law
Society's Conveyancing Committee and
the country's main financial institutions.
The President of the Law Society, Frank
Daly, described it as 'a major break-
through for all conveyancers'.
The three new forms -
Solicitor's
undertakings, Certificate of title
and
General guidelines
- should be used by
solicitors for all residential property
mortgage transactions approved after 1
February 1997. The Conveyancing
Committee and the Solicitors Mutual
Defence Fund are warning members
that if they do not use the agreed
documents, they may run into difficulty
with their professional indemnity
insurance cover>pJture changes to the
new «greed forms required as a result of
legislation or changes in conveyancing
practice can only be made by the Con-
veyancing Committee, though the
Society will consult the reactivated
Lenders Solicitors' Joint Committee
before altering the documents.
The President of the Law Society, Frank
Daly, praised the work of the Con-
veyancing Committee, and described
the forms as 'a real benefit' to
solicitors. 'The profession has every
reason to thank the members of the
committee who worked so hard over
many months to reach agreement on
the new
Certificate of title
system. As
a result of the negotiations on the new
system, the roles and responsibilities
of borrowers' solicitors and lenders
have been clearly redefined. This
reestablishes the
Certificate of title
system as it was originally conceived
by the committee'.
Under the agreed arrangements, certi-
fying solicitors will now investigate
the title to a borrower's property, exe-
cute the relevant purchase and mort-
gage documentation, and supply the
lending institutions with the properly
completed
Certificates of title
and all
the other relevant documents as soon
as practicable. For their part, the lend-
ers will now be responsible for every-
thing not related to title, such as
creditworthiness, repayment arrange-
ments, property valuations and insur-
ance matters.
Practitioners are strongly urged to use
only the new agreed documentation
with effect from 1 February 1997.
No alternative documentation should
be used.
Pictured at the presentation to the Society of a set of the new standard Certificate of title documentation were members of the Conveyancing
Committee task force (l-r) Patrick Sweetman, Lisa McManus, Ken Murphy, Director General, Law Society, Colm Price, Chairman, Conveyancing
Committee, Brid Brady, Secretary, Conveyancing Committee, Brian Gallagher and William Devine.