No, you can apply without including your solicitor details. However, your solicitor details are required before the FHS issues you with a Customer Contract.
Yes, it is preferable to use the same solicitor for both your mortgage and your Customer Contract, which means your solicitor will have knowledge and visibility of both products in relation to your home purchase/build.
We will send your solicitor the following documents which must be signed, witnessed, completed, and returned before the FHS funds can be released:
- Customer Contract
- Declaration confirming:
- first-time buyer/eligible homebuyer status
- whether you are availing of the Help to Buy Scheme
- that the property will be your Principal Private Residence (PPR)
- that you have received or are waiving legal advice
- that you have received or are waiving financial advice
- Form of inhibition
- Inhibition consent form
- Certificate of title
- Solicitor’s undertaking
- Funds Requisition Form
- Certified Property report (Self-build only)
You can also ask your solicitor to provide the following:
- an explanation of the rules of the FHS and any events that require mandatory redemption of the equity share
- an explanation of the Customer Contract, the service charge, the redemption process, and your legal responsibilities
- guidance on signing the Customer Contract and the Mortgage Letter of Offer, together with any declarations required as proof of eligibility, including a declaration confirming that you are a first-time buyer
- an explanation of your responsibility to advise the FHS if there are any changes in your circumstances that would impact the equity share. For example, if you move out of your home and live somewhere else you must tell the FHS. Full details of this event and other circumstances in which you should advise the FHS will be outlined in your Customer Contract and in our Homebuyers Guide
Funds will be released to your solicitor’s account.
The equity share is secured by an ’inhibition’, which will be registered on the title to your property. It is your solicitor’s responsibility to ensure that this inhibition is registered with the Property Registration Authority (PRAI) once the funds have been released.
You will need to engage a solicitor again when you make certain changes to your equity facility, or when you sell your property.
