The Gazette 1996

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.