Tailte \u00c9ireann checklist<\/a> \u2013 but there are some good reasons to use a solicitor, says Johnston.<\/p>\nThere are two systems for recording property transactions in Ireland, both controlled by Tailte \u00c9ireann, which translates as \u201cIrish Lands\u201d. It is the independent government agency which, since March 2023, has been responsible for managing the Land Registry and the Registry of Deeds. <\/p>\n
The Land Registry system is where ownership is registered, and property deeds are filed. Before that system there was the Registry of Deeds. <\/p>\n
\u201cNot all titles have taken the leap from the Registry of Deeds to the Land Registry, and my concern would be if the property isn\u2019t Land Registry-titled,\u201d says Johnston.<\/p>\n
About 90 per cent of the legal titles in Ireland are registered in the Land Registry but older houses may not be \u2013 and registering your ownership of this type of property can be more complicated. <\/p>\n
Use a good solicitor. They will do a review of the title deeds of the property at the same time, says Johnston.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like an NCT for your title deeds. It will look at whether there are any discrepancies you should attend to, or whether there are any documents that are no longer relevant and can be removed,\u201d he says. \u201cOften there are old versions of the same folio that can be disposed of.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to see what\u2019s there and what isn\u2019t there, like compliance documents, and current local property tax registration,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
If the reader wanted to remortgage the property or sell it in future, ironing things out now will avoid complications. <\/p>\n
Once she is registered as the new owner with the Land Registry, she will receive a notice of completion from them. She should request an up-to-date version of the folio too, showing her as the owner, says Johnston.<\/p>\n
If he was dealing with this for a client, Johnston said he\u2019d look at any inheritance tax implications too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s a Dublin property, its value could be over the \u20ac400,000 child inheritance tax threshold, in which case she should be filing a return for Dwelling House Relief,\u201d says Johnston. <\/p>\n
This allows a beneficiary to receive a home as an inheritance, tax-free, if they have lived in it as their main residence for the three years immediately before the date of the inheritance.<\/p>\n
The other thing to square off is that the will actually reflects what the siblings have agreed.<\/p>\n
If the house was left to the reader and her sister, for example, but her sister has decided she doesn\u2019t want it and her sibling should get it, then formally disclaiming the benefit is wise to avoid any issues down the line. <\/p>\n
Relative to the value of the property, and to the cost of dealing with any potentially bigger problems later, getting legal advice can pay off. <\/p>\n
\u201cPaying legal fees to do the work now, in my opinion, will be money well spent,\u201d says Johnston. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe work will be straightforward for an expert; the cost should not be prohibitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The name of the reader who submitted the question is not being published to protect the identities of those involved.<\/p>\n
Please send your legal queries to Joanne Hunt, Ask the Lawyer, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, or by email to joanne.hunt@irishtimes.com<\/a> with a contact phone number. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q: My mother died last year and we have just completed probate. We did it ourselves as my…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[177],"tags":[79,18,19,4518,17,12094,234,235],"class_list":["post-564657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-inheritance","tag-ireland","tag-money-matters","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}