E-conveyancing: at last we can go online to sign on the dotted line

Recent reforms driven by Covid restrictions mean electronic transactions are likely to become the norm in property deals, speeding up the process considerably

The Electronic Commerce Act 2000 enables contracts to be signed electronically. However, despite the passage of two decades, the take up of this method of signing property contracts has been low

Recent reform of conveyancing practice and legislation extending the use of electronic signatures are stepping stones on the road to e-conveyancing, a long-held objective for successive governments and the Law Society of Ireland.

In 2019 conveyancing in Ireland changed to a pre-contract investigation of title system. In practical terms this means much of the work is front-ended, so that during the period post-contract and pre-completion it largely remains for the buyer to finalise finance to ...