A site carved out of family land is one of the most common Kilkenny transactions and one of the least prepared. Four conditions must all be satisfied, and a site failing any one of them is not a site — it is a field.
The Four
1. It must be capable of being carved out and mapped. Separating part of a larger holding requires a map to Land Registry standards, and the parcel must be identifiable and capable of registration. Where the parent holding is on unregistered title, or where an earlier death in the family was never dealt with, that has to be sorted first — and it can take considerably longer than anyone expects. 2. It must have access. Documented legal access to a public road, covering construction traffic as well as the eventual dwelling — a right of way for agricultural purposes may not be enough, and a lender will want it recorded rather than assumed. 3. It must have services. Water, electricity, and wastewater treatment — which for most rural sites means a septic tank or treatment system, requiring percolation testing to establish whether the ground can take it. A site that fails percolation is a serious problem. 4. It must have planning, or a realistic prospect of it — and in rural areas that can engage local need requirements, which vary and which are a genuine obstacle for some purchasers.
Take Advice Before Anything Is Agreed
The pattern that causes trouble is familiar: a price is agreed within a family or between neighbours, sometimes money changes hands, and only then does anyone ask whether the site can actually be delivered. By that stage expectations are set and relationships are engaged, which makes the answer “this cannot be done as proposed” far harder to absorb. The order should be reversed. Establish the four conditions first, then agree terms. Where the site is a gift from a parent, there is a further dimension again: the tax treatment, which is for your accountant and Revenue rather than this firm and which should be settled before anything is signed; the effect on the parent’s wider estate and on provision for other children; and whether each side has their own solicitor, which they should. Sites within families are simultaneously conveyancing, planning and succession, and treating them as a simple transfer of a piece of ground is how they end up unfinished for years.
Where the transaction is genuinely a planning question rather than a conveyancing one — a refusal, a condition, an appeal — that is separate work, covered at planningsolicitors.ie.
Buying or being given a site? 01 5827148.
Richard O’Shea — Solicitor & TEP
Solicitor at Mary Molloy Solicitors, established 1981, with an office at 2 Rose Inn Street in Kilkenny city centre and a second office in Dublin. The firm handles residential and rural conveyancing across Kilkenny and the south-east — buying, selling, sites and farmland, family transfers, remortgages and transfers of equity. Richard is a TEP of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, which matters more in conveyancing than people expect: a great many property transactions in Kilkenny arise out of an estate, a family transfer or a succession plan, and those need both sides handled together. Nothing here is tax advice — stamp duty and any gift or inheritance tax questions belong with your accountant and Revenue. 01 5827148 · richardoshea@marymolloysolicitors.com · LinkedIn
General information, not legal advice. This website contains general information about conveyancing and property law in Ireland. It is not legal advice and does not create a solicitor—client relationship. Every transaction turns on its own facts — the title, the planning position, the lender’s requirements and the contract — and advice on yours requires a consultation.
Nothing here is tax advice. Stamp duty, Local Property Tax, capital gains on a sale, and any gift or inheritance tax arising on a family transfer are matters for your accountant or tax adviser and for Revenue’s own guidance. This firm does not advise on tax and states no rate, threshold, relief or condition anywhere on this site. Where a scheme such as Help to Buy or the First Home Scheme is mentioned, the eligibility rules and limits are set by Revenue and the scheme administrators and change from time to time — confirm the current position directly with them.
No valuation, survey or financial advice. This firm does not value property, does not advise on price, and is not a surveyor, engineer or mortgage adviser. A solicitor’s investigation of title is not a structural survey and is not a substitute for one, and no legal work will tell you whether a property is sound or whether the price is right.
Never both sides of the same transaction. The firm acts for buyers and, in separate transactions, for sellers — but not for both parties to the same sale. Conflicts are checked before any substantive discussion, which is why the first contact should identify the property and every party involved.
No timeline is promised. Nothing on this site states or implies that a transaction will close by any particular date. Closing depends on matters outside any solicitor’s control, including the other side, the lender, the chain, and third parties such as local authorities and Tailte Éireann.
Fees. Fees and outlays are agreed in writing with the client at the outset, in accordance with the Legal Services Regulation Act. In contentious business, a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement.