House-buying to get cheaper with e-conveyancing

THE legal process of buying a house will be speeded-up and made cheaper when a new proposal to computerise the system being proposed today comes on stream.

That is the view of the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Association (IAVI) who last night welcomed the latest proposal to modernise land and property law and bring in e-conveyancing by the end of 2006. The Law Reform Commission is recommending these major changes in new report to be launched by Justice Minister Michael McDowell today.

The Commission is recommending that obsolete land laws dating back to feudal times which gave people rights of succession be abolished and anachronistic laws that still give the British Crown a right to rents here be repealed.

The Commission is also recommending that a system of e-conveyancing be brought in because it would give us an on-line paperless system and save house buyers money.

Now that the Land Registry has a computerised its system there is a greater need to bring in e-conveyancing, the Commission believes.

The Department of Justice is fully supportive of the reform of the conveyancing laws and the introduction of e-Conveyancing. "But the laws will have to be streamlined first before we can bring in the e-conveyancing," a Department spokesman added.

The Irish Association of Auctioneers and Valuers (IAVI) also welcomed the move and said e-conveyancing will improve the system considerably.

"Getting folios and maps from the Land Registry will become much quicker and will ultimately save the house buyers time and money," said IAVI president Peter Tuohy.