Guidance Note for Solicitors on Termination

Guidance Note for Solicitors on Termination of the Practice of Re-Distribution of Fees Lodged – Legal Office Notice No. 9 of 2018

1. Background

Following the rollout of electronic payment methods for Land Registry fees and in line with government policy, acceptance of cheques from lodging parties is to be phased out completely by April 2019.  A fully electronic payments process is expected to enhance security of our payment systems and yield certain administrative efficiencies.

2. Financial Control of fees lodged

Re-assignment of fees lodged typically occurs when transactions within one dealing are split for administrative purposes and separate new dealing (s) are created. At present, such re-distribution of fees by casework staff is not possible where fees are paid electronically.

In the electronic payment environment, our proof of fees paid is based upon the payment processed by the lodging party that automatically populates the payment field in ITRIS. This evidence cannot be compromised in any way by manual intervention by PRA staff.

In the interest of good financial governance, this facility is now being eliminated also for non-electronic payments i.e. fees paid by cash and cheques.

3. New Procedure for fees management

In specific cases, where it is deemed appropriate to proceed with one of a series of transactions, part of the application will then be withdrawn following agreement, preferably by email, with the relevant lodging party.

When the withdrawn documents are being returned to the lodging party, the solicitor should be aware that

1. a partial refund of fees is in train

2. when the documents are being re-submitted for registration, the correct fee for each individual application should be separately paid through Landdirect.ie

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Aileen McHugh

Head of Operations

5th July 2018