The Law Searching Portal
for Professionals

What is a Beneficial Ownership search? Ever since European Anti-Money Laundering legislation was transposed into Irish law from 2015 onwards, it has become a requirement for companies, industrial and provident societies, and Certain Financial Vehicles (CFVs) to (a) maintain an internal register of their beneficial owners and (b) to file this information with a central register. In Article 3(6), 4AMLD, a Beneficial Owner is defined as any natural person(s) who either directly or indirectly ultimately (a) owns more than 25% of the company/society’s shares, (b) controls more than 25% of the company/society’s voting rights or (c) exercises control via other

Extending from the Townland Valuation Act (1826) and the Irish Poor Law Act (1838), attempts to create valuation of land evolved over time in Ireland into the Tenement Valuation Acts of 1846 and 1852. 

Friendly Societies have been described as ‘mutual aid’ associations. At their outset, they were organised on a voluntary basis to ‘…protect members against debts incurred through illness, death, or old age’.

The Irish Land Commission (ILC) was founded in 1881 and its primary role was to oversee the dissolution of large land estates and enable tenants to purchase the subdivided holdings.

The intention of a Proceeding search is to flag whether there any High Court actions (or referred actions from lesser courts) initiated that could potentially affect the ownership of a property, or impact on the boundaries/ right/ interests of a sale property. 

To better understand what is a ‘petition search’ it is perhaps first worthwhile exploring the nature of petitions, and then specifically address petitions in context to conveyancing.

The Sheriff (Revenue) offices – Their role and record keeping in a conveyancing context. The origins of the State’s various Sheriff’s Offices predate Irish independence. Deriving from English legal antiquity, these sheriff’s functions include the enforcement of court judgments. Presently, trade creditors and individuals can obtain judgments and use sheriffs (Cork & Dublin) or County Registrars (All other counties) to enforce payment. However, for debts owed to the Irish State, all taxes, interest and duties are collected via the Office of the Revenue Commissioners. These Revenue Commissioners in turn can confer (via warrant) their Sheriff’s power on their own appointees,