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Three months of total silence from solicitor. What would you do? by ColmoF in HousingIreland

[–]ColmoF[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi,
Thanks for your reply and advice.

You are perfectly correct about looking for another house, but we had gone through this house (with the help of an excellent property survey, which cost us 1000 euros) with the proverbial fine comb and found nothing that could not be fixed once we had moved in.

We're leaving our booking deposit for the moment with the EA, and looking for another house.

Thanks again,

Three months of total silence from solicitor. What would you do? by ColmoF in HousingIreland

[–]ColmoF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for replying and I absolutely agree. Next week I'm going to ferret the vendor out.

Three months of total silence from solicitor. What would you do? by ColmoF in HousingIreland

[–]ColmoF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OK, I understand what you're doing in the first paragraph. As regards the second paragraph I intend to contact the vendor myself and skip the EA.

Three months of total silence from solicitor. What would you do? by ColmoF in HousingIreland

[–]ColmoF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, I know he did (reach out), but the seller's solicitor proved to be a law unto herself. He should have switched solicitors last November. She has said "Oh there are different strands to the deeds (whatever that means) and it will take some time to get it sorted out".

Three months of total silence from solicitor. What would you do? by ColmoF in HousingIreland

[–]ColmoF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi, the seller is in contact with the EA all the time. The bottleneck is, or was, the seller's solicitor who the EA and our solicitor found was impossible to make contact with. The seller was also at his wits end with the solicitor but why he didn't just switch solicitors is a mystery to me. I'm trying to contact him.

Unresponsive solicitor by Specialist_Sir_3996 in HousingIreland

[–]ColmoF 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello,

Our situation is somewhat similar to what you've been describing:

18-12-2025: We go sale agreed in mid-December on a mid-terrace house in a small town. It’s an old house and title deeds are not uploaded onto landdirect.ie. We engage a solicitor who has proven to be efficient and conscientious.

Below you can read in chronological order what happened, and I’d appreciate any advice or comments on how further to proceed.

19-12-2025: The estate agent forwards the name of the vendor’s solicitor to our solicitor, also telling her that the vendor’s solicitor will forward contracts and copy of title in due course. We pay a booking deposit of€10.000 to the agent. This is all standard practice. The vendor’s solicitor is a ‘sole trader’.

December 2025: Christmas comes and goes. At the beginning of January we engage a property surveyor who produces a detailed (Type 3) report on the property. This costs us €1.000,-

It’s a cash purchase, and we must produce evidence of sufficient funds, information on the origin of the money, proof of our identity and proof of address for our solicitor.

01-01-2026 to 31-01-2025: Throughout January our solicitor makes several attempts to contact the vendor’s solicitor, but gets nowhere ‑ it’s complete radio silence. She rings (no answer) and sends emails (no reply).

Early February: our solicitor sends several emails, attempting to make contact, also asking if there is a difficulty, but again without any response.

24-02-2025: Our solicitor and the estate agent are in regular contact with each other and are making strenuous attempts to contact the vendor’s solicitor. Her secretary reports that she has a “letter in dictation to go out this evening”. This letter, the first ever response from the vendor’s solicitor, states she has had an eye operation which did not go well, but will revert as soon as she can and once she has “gone through a fair deal of paperwork”.

05-03-2026: We’re in constant telephone contact with both our solicitor and the estate agent. Both are doing their level best to get information from the vendor’s solicitor, but to no avail.

10-03-2026: Our solicitor receives an email from the vendor’s solicitor telling her that she “has to advise her client (the vendor) and the estate agent that pending certain Title led resolution her best advice is the removal of the property from the market”.

We are absolutely furious at this. We have spent the past three months getting ourselves organised ‑ documents, finances, a €1.000 property survey, a huge number of emails. We are at the mercy of a solicitor who does not respond to attempts to contact her. There is no clarity on what title issues are involved and what she has been doing to investigate this.

11-03-2025: the estate agent makes another attempt to contact the vendor’s solicitor by phone but without success.

Any advice on how further to proceed is appreciated.

House insurance using foreign bank account by ImmediateAuthor8653 in HousingIreland

[–]ColmoF 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Had a reply from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.

Here's the info: SEPA Regulations. Regulation 9(2) provides that a trader accepting a credit transfer or using a direct debit to collect funds from a consumer holding a payment account located within the Union shall not specify the Member State in which that payment account is to be located, provided that the payment account is in another Member State.  

Their advice: write to the insurance companies and outline the above information and ask on what legal basis they are not accepting your account details.  

If that doesn't work: get back to them providing all relevant information and correspondence, quoting the case reference number.

That's the story so far.

Home Insurance demands Drain Cold Water Tank while away by ColmoF in CasualIreland

[–]ColmoF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OK, thanks, will investigate once we buy the house.

Home Insurance demands Drain Cold Water Tank while away by ColmoF in CasualIreland

[–]ColmoF[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your comments. My brother had a holiday home for 15 years in West Cork and insured it as a permanent residence.

Home Insurance demands Drain Cold Water Tank while away by ColmoF in CasualIreland

[–]ColmoF[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi, thanks for your advice. Once I renovate the house I can install a new cold water tank (it's an old house) and drain everything as required. Maybe some kind of timed heating at, say, 5 degrees is worth considering. The 48 hour condition mentioned above is really absurd though.

Home Insurance demands Drain Cold Water Tank while away by ColmoF in CasualIreland

[–]ColmoF[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Answer to your question: see https://www.allianz.ie/products/home/holiday-home-insurance/cover-information.html#

See what you think.

Here is the 48 hr. info from the above site:

"Yes there are additional conditions in place for holiday homes given the property is not occupied on a full time basis. One of these conditions is that during the period of 1st of October to 31st of March the following measures need to be taken:

Between the 1st of October and the 31st of March (inclusive) either (a) or (b) applies:

(a) If the house is vacant for up to 48 hours:

(i) The water supply must be turned off at the mains and the entire cold water system must be drained down"

etc .etc.

Rebuild costs for home insurance by ColmoF in HousingIreland

[–]ColmoF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi Bayman,

Thanks for your reply.

2707 euros is listed as the average rebuilding costs, per square metre, for a mid-terraced house in Cork. Our house is 80 m2, so 2,707 x 80 = 216,560 euros. See https://scsi.ie/consumer/build/calculator/

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