Mr. Patrick Davitt:

Auctioneers, like solicitors, are represented in every town in Ireland and they, like us, are an important part of that community. These serious delays in conveyancing are not good for property buyers and sellers, and commonly lead to gazumping. They are not good for auctioneers and ultimately they are not good for solicitors either. Our President, Mr. Anderson, has outlined some of the impediments for solicitors. We also appreciate that many solicitors' offices are under pressure arising from the fallout of the financial crisis. Some will have been forced to let staff go and some are not in a position yet to ramp up again.

In residential investment property sales there is now an added layer of legal involved. The buyer, if purchasing with a mortgage, now has to pay for the bank's solicitor as well as their own. The seller pays their own solicitor. So there are now three different solicitors involved in this transaction. This is a far cry from the practices operated and enjoyed by our European neighbours, as our survey points out. We ask this committee to look into this with a view to changing this practice. If banks are not happy with using the purchaser's solicitor to certify title we propose that they set up a panel of solicitors from which purchasers could choose one. This would dispense with the need for an additional solicitor and would cut weeks off the timeframe from sale agreed to close of sale. This is done very successfully with valuation panels; the valuation on the property is a very important part of the transaction. We fail to see why this would not work. After all, while consumers pay the bills and the mortgage, the bank holds the deeds and it is in their interest to make sure that the job is done correctly.

Interestingly, section 7(3) of the new SI 47 of 2015 from the Central Bank, Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2013 (Section 48) (Housing Loan Requirements) Regulations 2015, which deals with the new loan-to-value, LTV, and loan-to-income ratios, LTI, states: "A lender shall ensure that the appraiser appointed by that lender shall undertake a market valuation of a residential property which is required under these Regulations not earlier than a period of two months before the date on which the advance under the housing loan is made by the lender." Therefore, if conveyancing goes beyond that two-month deadline a new valuation will have to be sought by the financial institution. If the new valuation comes in lower than the original one, and the loan is for the maximum of 80% LTV allowed under the Central Bank new rules this will throw all the bank loan documents out of sync. New loan documents will have to be drafted, further delaying the process.

In Construction 2020, recommendation 73 states: "In collaboration with key stakeholders (the legal profession and the banking sector) we will review and report on the steps required to deliver a system of e-conveyancing in Ireland, including the resource implications and timeframes for delivery." At a recent meeting with the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland it confirmed that it is very supportive of an e-conveyancing system. We have sought a meeting with the Law Society with a view to attaining its assistance in addressing the situation.

As public representatives we ask the members of the committee to support a fast-tracking of State plans for the e-conveyancing system. The Property Registration Authority has been set up and it has recently indicated that e-conveyancing could be up and running in two and a half years. This, in our view, is far too long and far too far away. With banks increasingly offloading more properties the current situation is likely to be exacerbated.

The property price register sales figures for 2014 show that 40,000 properties changed hands. This is a turnover of between 2% and 2.5%. However, a normal functioning property market would be expected to turn over 4% of all possible stock. If this number of properties had to be conveyed it would most likely exacerbate the current problems. The electronic stamping system was set up in 2009 by the Revenue Commissioners with great success. Its success could be replicated with e-conveyancing. We would ask that the committee would do everything within its powers to speed it up.

Thank you, Chairman. We would be happy to take any questions you may wish to put to us.