Most Irish residential sales use the Law Society standard contract, whose general conditions are familiar and broadly balanced. What varies from sale to sale — and where a buyer’s risk actually sits — is the special conditions.
What the Special Conditions Do
They modify the standard position, almost always in the seller’s favour, and they are where an unsatisfactory situation gets managed. A special condition can limit the seller’s obligation to prove something — for instance to furnish a particular certificate. It can shift a risk onto the buyer, such as a planning compliance issue the seller cannot resolve. It can deal with a known defect in title, disclosing it and providing that the buyer accepts it. It can make the sale subject to an event, such as a grant of representation issuing in an estate sale. And it can address what is and is not included in the sale. None of that is improper — special conditions are the mechanism by which real properties with real histories get sold. The point is that each one transfers something, and a buyer needs to know what.
Reading It Properly
The temptation, at the point contracts arrive, is to sign quickly because everybody is anxious and the chain is waiting. That is precisely the moment a poor position gets papered over. Practical points for a buyer: check the completion date and whether it is realistic; check what is being excluded from the sale, since fittings assumed to be included have caused more arguments than any other item; check any condition making the sale subject to something, and what happens if that thing does not occur; and read every special condition asking “what is this protecting the seller from, and does it therefore land on me?” For a seller, the corresponding point is that special conditions are not a substitute for dealing with a problem — a mortgaged buyer frequently cannot accept a planning risk because their lender will not, so a condition attempting to pass one may simply lose you the sale. And remember what signing means: nothing until it is exchanged. Signing your own part does not commit you. Exchange is the moment, and everything material should be resolved before it.
The question worth asking your solicitor: which special conditions were added, and what is each of them doing? If the answer is that none were added, that is unusual and worth confirming.
Been sent contracts? 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.
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