Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 5 December 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

General Scheme of the Residential Tenancies (Right to Purchase) Bill: Discussion

Mr. Patrick Davitt:

Head 4 covers this. We said before the Senator came in that the head states that documentation about the loan should be passed to the vendor's solicitor. Even if an agent is dealing with the property, it would be passed to the vendor's solicitor. We believe it should be passed to the agent acting on behalf of the vendor or, in the event that an agent is not acting, maybe the solicitor for the vendor. Many vendors do not have solicitors at that point. Why would somebody who is buying a property, using an agent, suddenly decide to engage a solicitor? They would pick a solicitor if they do not have one and would need to give their loan documentation to that solicitor, instead of giving it to the agent who is used to looking at this every day of the week. The third part of head 4 unfortunately does not make sense. We would like for that to be looked at and amended, if possible.