It will be recalled that we were not too impressed with apieceofireland.com when we reviewed its product back in March, well we not consider a competitor known as buyireland.com.
Disregarding all other potential problems, what stopped me taking the American Express out of the Wallet was that buyireland.com are not selling land freehold, instead the purchaser must settle for a 20 year leasehold interest. Now, consideirng that the footage of the land is token the Unique Selling Point I had assumed was that the purchased would actually own the land. But he will not.
Sure as a potential customerwhy would I waste my money at buyireland.com when a local farmer in Ireland will rent me an entire acre, near my house, for EUR 300 for a year, and during that time I can dig holes in the land, plant grass, do wheelies, live in a tent, or whatever else I want (that is not permanent)
Dear readers, the only advantage I see with buyireland.com is the decorative parchment. Thus it is a gift, if you are a principle it offers little.
Hello,
Thanks for reviewing BuyIreland.com on your site. I thought it might be of interest to your readers to clarify exactly what we’re offering and why.
Conveyance (property) law in Ireland can be quite complex and there are different types of land that have different laws surrounding the transfer of ownership.
The land that BuyIreland.com is selling is not freehold, but is not simply a 20 year leasehold either. The reasons for this are threefold:
1. With a number of different people owning the different plots of land, and visiting their plots, if we sold freehold ownership then landowners could compromise the untouched natural beauty of the area by erecting flag poles, digging large holes, etc. The idea behind BuyIreland.com is not to sell property that people may wish to live on or place memorials like a graveyard, but to allow people to own a small plot of land in the middle of an unspoilt area of rural Ireland. Every land owner should be free to enjoy their land in its rural setting, so we must restrict what people do on their plot in order for this to be possible. We often refer people who are looking for larger plots of land to other property websites such as MyHome.ie or Daft.ie.
2. The 20 year leasehold ownership that we sell is renewable AT NO CHARGE after 20 years, and again indefinitely after that in periods of 20 years. Our aim is not to restrict the term of ownership to 20 years, but to work within the limitations of the leasehold ownership laws. We will email every land owner when their 20 year term is approaching and ask them to renew their leasehold by notifying us they wish to do so (by email, fax, letter, etc.). Details of this requirement are also clearly laid out in the deed documentation that accompanies every order.
3. The cost of registering the land with the land registry in Ireland are prohibitively high - many hundreds of euro. As the vast majority of our customers are looking for a unique and special gift, the actual registration of the ownership is not important. However, our land owners are more than welcome to submit the registration documents to the land registry in Dublin and pay the fees themselves if they wish, and we can put land owners in contact with a solicitor who can assist with this if they wish. The fact is that most of our customers will have no interest in doing this, so by asking our customers to get in touch every 20 years this gives us a way of keeping our database of land owners up to date, in case we ever need to contact them. Otherwise, there would be no way to encourage people to update their contact information with us.
I have tried to be as frank and open as I can with the information above. At BuyIreland.com we have absolutely nothing to hide - we are a very small business selling small plots of land to people who have a love of Ireland. We’re not trying to scam anybody and are always happy to answer any and all questions people may have, before and after they place an order. Also, remember that we offer a 100% money back guarantee - if people aren’t completely satisfied we offer them a full refund.
I very much hope you will reconsider the conclusion in your review given the above clarifications.
Best regards,
John Beckett
BuyIreland.com