{"id":552379,"date":"2026-07-16T08:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T08:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/552379\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T08:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T08:53:10","slug":"my-late-mothers-house-deeds-are-missing-can-i-get-another-copy-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/552379\/","title":{"rendered":"My late mother\u2019s house deeds are missing \u2013 can I get another copy? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">I\u2019m writing to inquire about house deeds. The house belonged to my mother, who is deceased, and it is registered with the Land Registry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">I\u2019ve been told by the local council that my mother had the deeds, but I can\u2019t find them anywhere. I\u2019m wondering if I can get another set of deeds for the house and how I would go about doing that. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A: That the property is registered with the Land Registry should make finding information about it straightforward, says solicitor Gwen Bowen, of Bowen &amp; Co Solicitors in Sixmilebridge, Co Clare.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">There are two systems for recording property in Ireland \u2013 the Land Registry and the Registry of Deeds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">About 90 per cent of the legal titles in Ireland are now registered in the Land Registry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Land Registry issues property folios \u2013 a folio is an official document, but there is no \u2018original\u2019. A folio serves as official proof of ownership. It shows the location and size of the property, the name and address of the registered owner and lists any financial or legal burdens on the property, such as mortgages or rights of way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Anyone can log on to <a href=\"http:\/\/landdirect.ie\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LandDirect.ie<\/a>, a Government website, to check the ownership of property, its boundaries or rights of way. Here, too, you can view and print a plain copy of the property folio, costing \u20ac5, or order a physical certified copy for \u20ac40. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">If you are planning on selling the property, you\u2019ll need the assistance of a solicitor anyway, so you could ask them to do this.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The reader\u2019s query infers his mother\u2019s house was once a council-owned property, or a home that was purchased with a council loan. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">You may find the Land Registry folio shows there is a charge registered on the property by the local authority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cBack in the day, when the local authority was giving you the title deeds to a property, they would have given you a paper \u2018discharge\u2019 document, but they wouldn\u2019t have formally registered it, so it (the charge) may still show,\u201d says Bowen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cAnything before the late 1990s, we tend to find there is a charge still sitting on the property. People say, \u2018but I paid it off\u2019 . . . There will be evidence somewhere that it is paid off. Again, you just write to the local authority, send them the folio and tell them it was paid off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThey will be able to work it out and get the charge removed, although there may be an administration charge.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A solicitor will need to compile several documents for the sale, including title deeds, a Land Registry-compliant map, certificates proving any extensions, conversions or structural alterations were done legally, a building energy rating (BER) certificate and proof that local property tax has been paid up to date. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">If there have been any alterations to the property that required planning permission or a certificate of compliance, and these are lost, they will have to be replaced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cYou won\u2019t be able to sell your house without them,\u201d says Bowen. \u201cYou\u2019ll need to get an engineer to go out and certify any work.\u201d That will cost about \u20ac1,000. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">If you are selling the property but it is still in your mother\u2019s name, you will have to provide a grant of probate or a grant of administration to show that you inherited the property, or that you have authority to sell it. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Bowen adds: \u201cIf the reader\u2019s mother had a number of children but never made a will, and the reader has been living in the house all these years, he may be entitled to adverse possession of it. However, that is a whole different issue.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The name of the reader who submitted the question is not being published to protect the identities of those involved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Please send your legal queries to Joanne Hunt, Ask the Lawyer, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, or by email to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2026\/07\/16\/my-late-mothers-house-deeds-are-missing-can-i-get-another-copy\/mailto:joanne.hunt@irishtimes.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2026\/07\/16\/my-late-mothers-house-deeds-are-missing-can-i-get-another-copy\/mailto:joanne.hunt@irishtimes.com\" target=\"_blank\">joanne.hunt@irishtimes.com<\/a> with a contact phone number. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m writing to inquire about house deeds. The house belonged to my mother, who is deceased, and it&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,5144],"class_list":["post-552379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-money-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}