10 Documents You Need to Sell Your House

Are you thinking of selling your property in Dublin?

Selling a house or an apartment can be full of unwelcome surprises especially for those who may be attempting the process for the first time.

Even for experienced sellers difficulties can still arise due to the increasingly arduous demands from banks, solicitors and engineers all of which have the potential to slow down or derail the sale of your property.

If you are committed to selling a house or an apartment in Dublin and you are ready to start the process; here is our definitive guide to the documents required in order to successfully complete your property sale.

1. Title Deeds

When it comes to the paperwork the first thing that you need to consider is the location of the title deeds. This is perhaps the most important of all required documents.

If the property is owned outright then the deeds should either be in your own possession or with your solicitor

If there is a mortgage on the property this means that the bank retains a legal charge against the property and so will have possession of the deeds.

It is important from the outset to make an appointment with your solicitor to sign an authority to request the deeds to be released from the bank to your solicitor. This is the first port of call in order to get the ball rolling with the paperwork.

There can be delays of up to eight weeks before the bank sends across the deeds to your solicitor so the sooner you request them the better. The issue that arises here is that your solicitor cannot send out the contracts for sale to the purchaser’s solicitor until he or she is in possession of the deeds.

If too much time passes at this point buyers can become nervous of the delays, particularly those buyers who are not experienced in such matters, such as first time buyers who account for a large majority of the market.

2. Building Energy Rating Certificate

The next of the documents in the paperwork trail is the Building Energy Rating Certificate. This will indicate the energy performance of the building. It is also a key strategic element in selling a house.

As a rule of thumb B or C Rated houses are much easier to sell than say for example D or E rated houses. A substantial cohort of house buyers in Dublin are foreign nationals, many of whom originate from warmer countries. These buyers also typically lack the access to a network of trades people in Dublin and are in general less confident to take on energy refurbishments.

Houses with poor energy performance will be less attractive and will have a lower perceived value which will negatively impact both the price achievable along with the required time to sell.

If you are selling a house in Dublin with a poor BER it might be worth considering some minor energy upgrades.

There are some easy options to consider that will give you a great return on your investment. Attic insulation is relatively inexpensive, is easy to install and makes a big difference in your BER as most heat escapes through your roof.

If you own a house in Dublin that was last insulated twenty years ago there may be just a few inches of insulation between your rafters. The modern standard is 300mm which is one foot in thickness.

Increasing the roof insulation to the current building regulation standard would have a transformative effect on your BER and would offer a really strong return on investment.

This alone will improve your BER sufficiently in order to help you to get a better price along with a wider community of buyers.
At this point you will also need to consider the best agent to hire in Dublin in order to handle the sale of your property.

Fair Deal Property cover the entire Dublin property market as well as the surrounding counties in Leinster such as Meath, Kildare and Wicklow.

You need to aim to find the agent who will deliver the best possible result for you and also charge you a fair and reasonable fee which is reflective of the chronic stock shortages which are pervasive in the current Dublin property market.

What matters most is the quality of marketing that you receive and the sales ability of the agent who is engaged in selling your house. It is not unusual for large national franchises to have apprentices showing houses. This works to some degree when demand in an area is exceptional. But if you need a sales person, think very carefully about who you trust to do your selling.

Everybody who works at Fair Deal Property from the secretaries to the property agents are trained professional sales people with over 20 years of sales experience. We bring a huge amount of passion, enthusiasm and dedication to what we do in order to ensure that each and every one of our buyers and sellers receives the exceptional level of service that they all richly deserve.

3. PSRA Letter of Engagement

In advance of selling your house you will need to sign a PSRA Letter of Engagement document with your chosen agent. This will set out the fee structure and obligations for the agent and the seller etc.

Be careful to read this carefully. It is not unusual to find hidden fees along with onerous termination notice periods which are designed to try to lock you in for a prolonged period even if the agent is not performing.

4. Local Property Tax

When you are selling a house you will also need to ensure that you have the current print out documents that show that your LPT, (Local Property Tax) is up to date and has been set up using the correct band. Given the rapid rise of property values in Dublin the LPT status can cause sellers some issues. Through no fault of their own many Dublin property owners have registered their properties in bands that under-represent the values of their homes over time.

A retrospective valuation may be required to satisfy the revenue commissioners and a balancing tax will be payable if comparables cannot be found to justify the historic reported values of the property.

If you are selling your own property you will also need an exemption from the NPPR tax or the Non Principal Private Residence Tax 2009 to 2013. A Commissioner of Oaths will be able to sign an affidavit on your behalf that will exempt you from the tax. If you are selling a property that was not your principal private residence you may need to produce relevant documents to show that tax has been paid or to pay the tax retrospectively.

5. Planning Permission Documents & Paperwork

You will also need to supply an array of planning permission documents and paperwork. The planning status of your house along with its boundaries and all adjoining outbuildings will be thoroughly checked by the engineer representing your buyers. His report will be sent to the purchaser’s solicitors and the findings will be presented to the bank in order to qualify the title.

If you have carried out any extensions or alterations to the property you may also need either to retrospectively apply for planning know as ‘retention’ planning permission. That is to retain what is already in place. Typically if the extensions or alterations have been in place for more than seven years then the seven year rule would apply. This means that if the planning authority had not been made aware of the unauthorised development for a period of seven years then in theory they cannot ask for it to be undone.

There are some exceptions to this, for example; if the works completed are in breach of a condition of planning. Generally extensions to the rear of a property which are less than 40 square meters will not cause any issue as there is a general exemption in place for such developments, provided that it is not two stories or more as this would require planning permission which again can be sought retrospectively prior to selling your house.

Changes to the front elevation are more problematic, for example; a side extension etc. We have even seen the addition of a bay window cause serious problems. If your buyer is using a mortgage to purchase your property the bank will have first legal charge so in real terms the bank is buying the property and because of this they will want the title to be very clean as they will want to be free in the event of the non payment of the mortgage to repossess the property in order to sell it again without any planning impediments. And we have seen banks refuse mortgages based on non compliance with planning for something as seemingly innocuous as the addition of a bay window.

When you are selling a house the solicitor operating on behalf of the purchasers will look for certificates of compliance with building regulations and planning permission and certificates of exemptions where applicable. If required you will have to hire an engineer to certify the house as per the requirements.

A note on attic conversations

At Fair Deal Property we come across a lot of attic conversions in the Dublin property market. After all when space is at a premium what could make more sense than utilising the unused space in your attic to create additional living space? When you are selling a house the attic conversion is not always the most straightforward thing to deal with. The sellers will often assume that they have added tremendously to the value of the home whereas the reality is that due to non compliance with fire regulations etc. that attic space more often than not has to be sold as non-habitable space and a certificate of compliance will be required from the buyer’s solicitors. This is particularly true if the attic conversion forms part of a third floor.

If you have a septic tank on your property this will also need to be checked to ensure it was installed correctly with regard to the conditions of your planning permission and that it is contained along with the percolation area inside the boundaries of your property. You may also need to show documents to prove that it has been serviced and emptied. You will also need to show documents to prove that the septic tank has been fully registered.

You need to pay close attention to these potential issues from the outset as property owners are often oblivious to problems until they end up delaying or worse still derailing their property sale entirely.

6. [Apartments] MUD (Multi Unit Development) Report

If you are selling an apartment there are additional required documents that you need to be aware of. Your solicitor will have to provide a MUD (Multi Unit Development) report to the buyer’s solicitor.

The MUD report will be used to answer the pre contract queries that will be raised by the buyer’s solicitor. Your solicitor in collaboration with the management company is responsible for answering all the queries that will arise in the following areas; the management of common areas and the maintenance contracts in place, details about the management company, financial details regarding the financial status including details of the sinking fund and the balance of the account, legal compliance, for example fire certification etc.

7. Certificate of Probate

If you are selling a house that was in the ownership of a relative who has passed away then you may also need to get an additional document, namely; a certificate of probate in order to complete a sale. The probate office in Ireland is notoriously slow and the process can often take over a year to complete. To start the probate process you will also need a valuation on the date of death.

Fair Deal Property provides free probate valuations to all of our clients in Ireland.

8. PPSN & Marriage Certificate

When selling a house you will also need to provide your PPS Number and if you are married you will also need to provide your marriage certificate.

9. Land Registry Compliant Map

To finalise the required documents for your house sale you will also need a Land Registry Compliant Map. If your property has not been sold in recent years the chances are that a first registration will be required. This means that your property will have to be registered with the land registry.

10. List of Contents

When you are selling a house you will also need to include a list of any contents that are being included in the sale. You are under any obligation to include contents as typically only fixtures and fittings are included. A fixture is defined as something that if removed would cause a degree of damage to the property. For example, if you removed a curtain rail or a kitchen unit from the wall.

Nevertheless when selling a house there can often end up being negations around furniture and if an agreement has been reached it is best to put this into the contract for sale and list all of the relevant items as given the passage of time between going sale agreed and the closing of the sale confusion can often emerge regarding the details of what was originally agreed.

If you are thinking about selling a house or apartment in Dublin we will be delighted to hear from you to help you in any way that we can.

Fair Deal Property Dublin can help you to achieve the results that you deserve through superior sales and marketing and fairly priced fees along with premium level expertise that will ensure your selling process will go as smoothly as possible.

Call us today on 01 5242079 and let us show you why we are Ireland’s fastest growing estate agency.