Home Buyers: Buying the folio before you make an offer costs very little and tells you who owns the property, on what class of title, and what is registered against it. Anything unexpected in Part III is far easier to raise before a price is agreed than afterwards.
Buy a Land Registry Folio Online in Ireland
Quick Answer
You can buy a folio online for any registered property in Ireland without knowing its folio number, because the address or Eircode is enough to identify the register entry. The folio you receive sets out the registered owner, the Nature of Title and every burden affecting the land. It is delivered electronically, so nothing waits on the post.
Buying a folio no longer means a trip to an office or a form filled in blind. The register maintained by the Property Registration Authority can be searched from an address, and the folio ordered and delivered without you ever handling a reference number.
What Is This Document
A folio is the Land Registry’s record of title to a parcel of registered land. Buying one gives you the register entry as it stands: Part I describing the property and giving its plan reference, Part II naming the registered owner and stating the Nature of Title, and Part III listing every burden registered against the land, from charges and rights of way to covenants and grazing entitlements.
The practical obstacle for most people buying a folio for the first time is that they do not have a folio number, and they assume they need one. They do not. Every registered property in the State can be located from its address and Eircode, and the number is what the search produces rather than what it requires. That is worth stating plainly, because it is the single most common reason people give up on ordering.
It is also worth separating two things that sound alike. A folio search is the process of finding which folio covers a given property and confirming what is registered on it. A folio copy is the document itself. If you know the property but not the folio, the search comes first and the copy follows from it; if you already hold the folio number and its county, the copy can be ordered directly.
One limitation applies before any of this. A folio exists only for registered land. Where a property has never been registered – which remains the case for land that has not changed hands since compulsory first registration reached its county – there is no folio to buy, and the title is recorded in deeds instead. Establishing which situation applies is part of the search rather than something you need to know beforehand.
Which Document Do I Need
Different questions need different documents:
| Need | Product | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Find which folio covers a property | Folio Search | €32.99 |
| Buy the folio itself | this page | — |
| See the registered extent as well | Folio and Map | €57.99 |
| Produce evidence for a solicitor, lender or court | Certified Folio | €149.99 |
| Read the wording of a burden on the folio | Instrument Copy | €349.99 |
What Information Is Included
A folio bought online returns:
- The registered owner or owners, with the date of registration
- The Nature of Title – absolute, qualified, possessory or good leasehold
- The property description in Part I, by townland and county, with the plan reference
- Every burden registered in Part III, including charges, rights of way, wayleaves, covenants, turbary and grazing rights
- Any cautions, inhibitions or notices restricting dealings with the land
- The folio number and county, which you will need for any further order
- Confirmation that the property is registered land rather than held on deeds
What Is Not Included
A folio establishes registered ownership, title class and burdens. It does not show the mapped extent, which needs the title map; explain the terms of a right of way or covenant, which needs the instrument copy; carry evidential weight with a lender or court, which needs certification; or cover unregistered land, planning history or the physical condition of a property.
Why People Order
- Checking a property before making an offer: Buyers regularly want the registered position before committing to a bid, and buying the folio is the cheapest way to see ownership and burdens.
- Confirming who owns a site or field: Where a property is neglected, disputed or simply unidentified, the folio names the registered owner.
- Checking your own property: Owners buy their own folio to confirm what is registered against it, particularly before selling or refinancing.
- Investigating a boundary or access question: The Part III burdens show what rights of way and wayleaves are registered before anyone argues about them.
- Tracing land in an estate: Executors and family members buy folios to establish what a deceased relative actually owned.
- Preparing for a mortgage application: Seeing the registered charges before approaching a lender avoids surprises at underwriting.
- Researching land for purchase or lease: Farmers and investors buy folios on land coming to market to see extent, title class and burdens in advance.
- Settling a disagreement with a neighbour: The register is a neutral record, and a folio frequently ends an argument that correspondence would not.
- Checking whether land is registered at all: Buying a folio search establishes whether a folio exists or the title rests in deeds at the Registry of Deeds instead.
- Confirming a charge has been discharged: Owners buy their folio after paying off a mortgage to check the charge has actually been removed from Part III rather than assume it.
Real World Use Cases
Property Owners: Owners buy their own folio to confirm that a charge has been discharged, that a right of way is registered as they believe, or simply that the registered details are correct before putting a property on the market.
Solicitors: Practitioners order online for speed. Where a client arrives with an address and no papers, buying the folio is the first step in establishing what there is to work with before advice can be given.
Farmers and Landowners: Land coming to market, a neighbour’s claim about an access, an inherited holding whose extent is unclear – each is answered by buying the relevant folios rather than relying on what has always been understood locally.
Executors and Family Members: Establishing what a deceased relative owned frequently starts with an address and nothing else, and buying the folio turns that into a defensible record of registered ownership.
Businesses and Investors: Due diligence on commercial premises or development land begins with the register, and buying folios early keeps the cost of investigating an unsuitable site low.
Land Registry Context
Buying a folio online is straightforward now, but the system behind it was built for a very different way of working, and the residue of that shows in how orders have to be framed.
The Land Registry was established to replace investigation of a chain of deeds with reliance on a single state-maintained record of title, and for most of its existence that record was consulted in person or by post, from paper folios held in the registry itself. Access depended on knowing the folio number and county, because the paper record was ordered that way and there was no practical means of searching from an address. Digitisation changed the retrieval method rather than the underlying structure, which is why folio numbering remains organised by county to this day, and why the same number exists in most counties. A folio number quoted without its county is still an incomplete reference.
The reach of the register expanded over the same period. Compulsory first registration was introduced county by county across several decades and was extended to Dublin and Cork on 1 June 2011, so registration on sale now applies throughout the State and the overwhelming majority of the land area is registered. That progression left a predictable gap: property that has not been sold since compulsory registration reached its county may never have been registered, and for that land no folio exists at all.
Where land is unregistered, the title is recorded at the Registry of Deeds, a separate and much older system in which registration establishes priority between competing instruments rather than guaranteeing title. A search there returns memorials of deeds rather than a folio, and the investigation is correspondingly more involved.
The practical consequence for anyone buying online is that the first question is not which document to order but whether the land is registered, and that is what a folio search answers.
Common Mistakes
Assuming you need the folio number to order: You do not. The address and Eircode are enough to identify the property, and the folio number is what the search produces. This assumption stops more people from ordering than any other.
Quoting a folio number without the county: Folio numbering is organised by county and the same number exists in most of them. A number supplied alone returns the wrong property or no result, so the county is part of the reference rather than an optional addition.
Confusing a folio search with a folio copy: The search establishes which folio covers a property and whether one exists; the copy is the document itself. If you have an address and no papers, the search comes first – /folio-search/dublin/.
Expecting a folio for unregistered land: Property that has not changed hands since compulsory registration reached its county may never have been registered. No folio exists for it, and the title is recorded in deeds at the Registry of Deeds instead.
Buying an ordinary copy where certification was required: An ordinary folio is for information. Where a lender, another solicitor or a court office is going to rely on it, a certified copy under seal is what will be accepted, and discovering that late costs a second order and the time it takes.
How To Order
Send the address and Eircode of the property. That is genuinely all that is needed for most orders – you do not need a folio number, and you do not need any paperwork from a previous sale.
If you do have a folio number, include the county with it. Numbers repeat across counties, so the two together identify the property while the number alone does not.
For agricultural land, a townland name and an approximate acreage work better than a postal address. Where more than one registered parcel matches what you have described, our team comes back to you before preparing anything so that you buy the right folio rather than the nearest one.
Turnaround & Delivery
The folio is supplied as an electronic copy, sent to the email address you provide. Each order is checked against the property you described before it is sent, so you are not left reconciling a document against an address yourself.
Where the property cannot be identified from the details supplied, or the land proves to be unregistered so that no folio exists, we contact you rather than sending something that does not answer your question.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I buy a folio without the folio number?
Yes. The address and Eircode are enough to identify the property, and the folio number is what the search produces rather than something you must supply. This is the ordinary way orders are placed and it causes no delay.
How quickly will I receive it?
Within. The folio is supplied as an electronic copy sent to the email address you give us, so nothing waits on the post. Each order is checked against the property you described before it is sent out.
What is the difference between a folio search and a folio?
The search establishes which folio covers a property, and whether one exists at all. The folio is the document itself. If you have an address and no paperwork the search comes first, and the copy follows from what it finds.
Why do you need the county with a folio number?
Because folio numbering is organised by county and the same number exists in most counties. A number quoted on its own is an incomplete reference, and an order placed that way returns the wrong property or no result at all.
What if the property has never been registered?
Then no folio exists to buy. Title to unregistered land is recorded in deeds at the Registry of Deeds, which is a separate system, and the search moves there instead. We tell you before charging for something that cannot be produced.
Is an online folio the same as one from the registry?
The content is the same register entry. What differs is certification: an ordinary copy is for information, while a certified copy carries the authority's certificate under seal and is what a lender, another solicitor or a court will expect.
Order Certified Folio
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Buy Certified FolioProperty Records Editorial Team
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