Closing day looks simple from outside — money moves, keys change hands. In practice it is a sequence of steps that must happen in order, several of them dependent on banks, and a delay at any point pushes everything after it.
The Order of Events
Searches are updated that morning, because their value lies in being current, and anything adverse stops matters until it is explained. Where there is a mortgage, the loan funds must have been drawn down and be with your solicitor, which depends on the lender’s own release timetable and is a common source of delay. The balance of the purchase money transfers to the seller’s solicitor. Where the seller has a mortgage, it is redeemed out of the proceeds and the charge released. The deed and title documents are handed over. Only then are keys released, normally through the auctioneer. Each step waits on the one before, and several involve interbank transfers that clear on their own schedule rather than yours. Where you are selling and buying on the same day, the money from your sale is funding your purchase, so the two chains have to interlock — which is the most delicate coordination in conveyancing and the reason an ambitious closing date is a genuine risk.
Practical Advice, and What Comes After
Do not book the removal van for nine in the morning. Keys frequently come later in the day, and a van sitting waiting is expensive and stressful. Do not book anything irreversible around a closing date in a chain until it is genuinely certain. Do check the property before closing where you can, particularly that what was included in the sale is still there and that agreed works were done — because afterwards your position is much weaker. And arrange your insurance to be in place from the right moment, which is a lender requirement in any event. Afterwards, two quiet things happen that you will barely notice and both matter: the deed is stamped, which is a Revenue process, and your ownership is registered with Tailte Éireann, with any lender’s charge registered alongside. Where the title was unregistered, that may involve a first registration and takes longer. Registration timelines belong to Tailte Éireann rather than to your solicitor, and a delay there affects neither your ownership nor your living in the house — but it does matter eventually, when you come to sell or remortgage.
The single best thing you can do for closing day: agree a realistic date rather than an ambitious one. A date that holds causes far less difficulty than a date that everybody privately doubted from the start.
Closing coming up? 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.