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In our experience most people don’t particularly enjoy the process of making a will. We often have clients tell us that they have been meaning to make one for years by the time they come to us. While we can appreciate that it isn’t something anyone really wants to think about, we really would encourage everyone to make one, it’s often more straightforward than you might think. The following are a number of matters to think about prior to making your will:

• Previous Wills – If you have previously made a will you will need to make your solicitor aware of this when you are making your new will. If the old will is in your possession it is advisable that you bring it with you to your appointment.
• Foreign Property – If you are lucky enough to have a holiday house in the south of France or a timeshare in Florida your Irish will won’t deal with these assets. Any property held abroad will need to be specifically dealt with in a separate will covering your property in that jurisdiction alone.
• Executors – An executor is the person who handles your affairs after your death. Among other things, they will pay any outstanding bills, gather your assets and take out a Grant of Probate, if required. It is a position of considerable responsibility and should not be appointed lightly. Although you can appoint only one executor in your will, we recommend appointing two just in case one can’t act for any reason.
• Guardians – If you are the guardian of a child under the age of 18 you should be appointing a Guardian (a testamentary guardian) for that child in your will. We always advise discussing this with the person you intend to appoint and obtaining their consent prior to making your will.
• Real Property – A home is usually the most valuable asset a person has and as such it is important that you are in a position to advise your solicitor on all details of it when making your will. Typically, a solicitor will need to know who officially owns the property, whether you the sole owner or you own the property jointly with another person. If the property is held jointly your solicitor will need to know whether you are ‘joint tenants’ or ‘tenants in common’. It is also essential, if there is a mortgage on the property, that you know whether there is a mortgage protection policy in place.
• Nominations – Various accounts and policies can be ‘nominated’ in favour of a specific person. It is very important you check whether any such nominations exist prior to making your will. If an account is nominated it passes to that person upon your death and your will has no effect on this.

The above listed matters are just a few of the matters which should be considered in advance of making your will. It goes without saying that for each client different matters will need to be considered upon contacting your solicitor. If you have any questions or would like to discuss the will-making process in more detail, please either call or email a member of our team who will be more than happy to help.

Now that the economy has begun to improve, we find that we are seeing a spike in first time buyers coming to us for advice and assistance in buying their first home. We appreciate that while this is an extremely exciting time it can also be quite daunting. Most people don’t know the process that is followed in a conveyancing transaction and not being aware of the steps involved can cause a lot of unnecessary stress. We have put together the following guide to remove some of the mystery involved in purchasing your first home.

• Once you have decided on the property you want to buy and have had your offer accepted you will be asked to put down a ‘booking deposit’. This is generally a refundable deposit paid directly to the auctioneer selling the property. At this stage you will need to let the auctioneer know what solicitor will be representing you in your purchase – for the purposes of this post we are going to assume you have picked Carey Murphy.
• Next, the auctioneer writes to us with a ‘Sales Advice Letter’. This contains all the basic information about the property and the Vendors (Sellers) details. Once we receive this, we will immediately write to the Vendor’s solicitor asking them to send us Contracts for Sale.
• Usually we will receive contracts within two weeks. Once we receive contracts, we will investigate the title to the property. This involves reviewing the Deeds as well as tax and planning documentation to make sure you are getting what is called ‘Good Marketable Title’. This step can take a little bit of time while we raise any pre-contract enquiries, we have with the Vendors Solicitor and they provide replies. If you are taking out a mortgage this is a good time to make sure you have your Letter of Loan Offer and that your bank is sending us your loan pack, we will need this once the title investigation step is over.
• Once we are happy that the title being offered by the Vendors is good and marketable, we will meet you to sign your contracts and loan documentation (if you are getting a mortgage). At this point you pay the rest of your deposit. A ‘Contract Deposit’ is typically 10% of the entire cost of the property. The ‘booking deposit’ you paid in step one is part of this 10%. Once everything is signed, we send the contracts and your contract deposit to the Vendors solicitor.
• The Vendor will then sign the contracts and return one to our office. At this point the closing date (the date you will get you keys) will have been agreed and we will arrange for your mortgage monies to be transferred to our account for that date.
• On the closing date we raise our last searches against the Vendor, these check for bankruptcies, judgments, insolvency arrangements etc. Providing these are clear we arrange with the Vendors Solicitor to exchange the balance purchase monies for the title deeds to the property. The keys are then released to you.

Every house purchase is different, but the above guide is an outline of what is typically involved. If you have any questions or would like to discuss the process in more detail, please either call or email a member of our team who will be more than happy to help.

In our experience most people don’t particularly enjoy the process of making a will. We often have clients tell us that they have been meaning to make one for years by the time they come to us. While we can appreciate that it isn’t something anyone really wants to think about, we really would encourage everyone to make one, it’s often more straightforward than you might think. The following are a number of matters to think about prior to making your will:

• Previous Wills – If you have previously made a will you will need to make your solicitor aware of this when you are making your new will. If the old will is in your possession it is advisable that you bring it with you to your appointment.
• Foreign Property – If you are lucky enough to have a holiday house in the south of France or a timeshare in Florida your Irish will won’t deal with these assets. Any property held abroad will need to be specifically dealt with in a separate will covering your property in that jurisdiction alone.
• Executors – An executor is the person who handles your affairs after your death. Among other things, they will pay any outstanding bills, gather your assets and take out a Grant of Probate, if required. It is a position of considerable responsibility and should not be appointed lightly. Although you can appoint only one executor in your will, we recommend appointing two just in case one can’t act for any reason.
• Guardians – If you are the guardian of a child under the age of 18 you should be appointing a Guardian (a testamentary guardian) for that child in your will. We always advise discussing this with the person you intend to appoint and obtaining their consent prior to making your will.
• Real Property – A home is usually the most valuable asset a person has and as such it is important that you are in a position to advise your solicitor on all details of it when making your will. Typically, a solicitor will need to know who officially owns the property, whether you the sole owner or you own the property jointly with another person. If the property is held jointly your solicitor will need to know whether you are ‘joint tenants’ or ‘tenants in common’. It is also essential, if there is a mortgage on the property, that you know whether there is a mortgage protection policy in place.
• Nominations – Various accounts and policies can be ‘nominated’ in favour of a specific person. It is very important you check whether any such nominations exist prior to making your will. If an account is nominated it passes to that person upon your death and your will has no effect on this.

The above listed matters are just a few of the matters which should be considered in advance of making your will. It goes without saying that for each client different matters will need to be considered upon contacting your solicitor. If you have any questions or would like to discuss the will-making process in more detail, please either call or email a member of our team who will be more than happy to help.

Now that the economy has begun to improve, we find that we are seeing a spike in first time buyers coming to us for advice and assistance in buying their first home. We appreciate that while this is an extremely exciting time it can also be quite daunting. Most people don’t know the process that is followed in a conveyancing transaction and not being aware of the steps involved can cause a lot of unnecessary stress. We have put together the following guide to remove some of the mystery involved in purchasing your first home.

• Once you have decided on the property you want to buy and have had your offer accepted you will be asked to put down a ‘booking deposit’. This is generally a refundable deposit paid directly to the auctioneer selling the property. At this stage you will need to let the auctioneer know what solicitor will be representing you in your purchase – for the purposes of this post we are going to assume you have picked Carey Murphy.
• Next, the auctioneer writes to us with a ‘Sales Advice Letter’. This contains all the basic information about the property and the Vendors (Sellers) details. Once we receive this, we will immediately write to the Vendor’s solicitor asking them to send us Contracts for Sale.
• Usually we will receive contracts within two weeks. Once we receive contracts, we will investigate the title to the property. This involves reviewing the Deeds as well as tax and planning documentation to make sure you are getting what is called ‘Good Marketable Title’. This step can take a little bit of time while we raise any pre-contract enquiries, we have with the Vendors Solicitor and they provide replies. If you are taking out a mortgage this is a good time to make sure you have your Letter of Loan Offer and that your bank is sending us your loan pack, we will need this once the title investigation step is over.
• Once we are happy that the title being offered by the Vendors is good and marketable, we will meet you to sign your contracts and loan documentation (if you are getting a mortgage). At this point you pay the rest of your deposit. A ‘Contract Deposit’ is typically 10% of the entire cost of the property. The ‘booking deposit’ you paid in step one is part of this 10%. Once everything is signed, we send the contracts and your contract deposit to the Vendors solicitor.
• The Vendor will then sign the contracts and return one to our office. At this point the closing date (the date you will get you keys) will have been agreed and we will arrange for your mortgage monies to be transferred to our account for that date.
• On the closing date we raise our last searches against the Vendor, these check for bankruptcies, judgments, insolvency arrangements etc. Providing these are clear we arrange with the Vendors Solicitor to exchange the balance purchase monies for the title deeds to the property. The keys are then released to you.

Every house purchase is different, but the above guide is an outline of what is typically involved. If you have any questions or would like to discuss the process in more detail, please either call or email a member of our team who will be more than happy to help.