Approval in principle is not a mortgage. It is an indication of what a lender might lend based on what you told them. A formal loan offer is an actual offer of a specific loan, on specific terms, for a specific property. Buyers who confuse the two put their deposit at real risk.
Do Not Exchange on Approval in Principle
It is one of the few genuinely avoidable disasters in conveyancing. At exchange you become contractually committed, the balance deposit is paid, and failing to complete puts that deposit at risk and carries further consequences. A buyer who exchanges believing they have a mortgage, and then finds the formal offer does not issue or issues on different terms, is in serious difficulty. The gap between the two is also where transactions come unstuck more generally, because the buyer reasonably believes they are funded and the seller reasonably believes they have a funded buyer. So the sequence is: approval in principle to start looking; formal loan offer before exchange; and everything in between spent converting one into the other as quickly as possible. If a seller is pressing for exchange and your offer has not issued, that pressure is the problem rather than your solicitor.
Conditions, Drawdown, and the Bank’s Solicitor
A loan offer comes with conditions to be satisfied before funds are released: life assurance and home insurance in place, a valuation, proof of the balance of the purchase money, and sometimes something specific to the property such as planning compliance or a septic tank certificate. Several depend on third parties, and lenders have internal timelines for issuing funds that nobody can compress. Deal with them the week the offer issues, not the week of closing — it is the most reliable way to protect a completion date. And the thing worth understanding rather than resenting: where there is a mortgage, your solicitor also acts for your lender. That is standard practice here, not a conflict, and it saves you the cost of a second firm. It means your solicitor gives the lender a personal undertaking about the title and its security, enforceable against them individually. That is the real reason certain documents cannot be waived when everyone wants to close on Friday — and it is protecting you at the same time, because a lender’s requirements about good title are largely your requirements too.
Send the loan offer to your solicitor as soon as it issues, including the conditions. The ones that depend on third parties are the ones to start immediately, and they are almost never the ones a buyer expects.
Loan offer issued, or still on approval in principle? 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.