Document
Officially certified copy of the registered title plan
Quick Answer
A Certified Map is an officially certified copy of the registered title plan for a Cork City property, issued under seal. It shows the registered extent and the plan reference the folio describes in words, and the certified folio itself comes with it. Because registration operates on general boundaries, it records approximately where a division runs rather than fixing its exact legal position.
There is a difference between seeing the registered extent of a Cork City property and proving it. An ordinary map answers the first. The Certified Map answers the second, because the seal permits reliance by a reader who cannot verify the copy themselves.
Supply the Cork City address or folio number. The certified title plan and the Certified Folio are issued together under seal and posted to you within 15 working days.
Buy Certified MapDocument
Officially certified copy of the registered title plan
Supplied with
The Certified Folio - certified register entry included in the same order
Shows
The registered extent of the property, identified by plan reference
Delivery
By post within 15 working days
Format
Sealed physical document - no electronic version
Needed for
Planning applications, transfers of part, lending and court use
Boundaries
General boundaries - approximate, not conclusive
County register
County Cork
Faster option
Folio Search delivered electronically within 24 hours
A Certified Map is the sealed, certified copy of the registered title plan for a property. It shows the parcel as mapped, together with the certification that it is a true copy of the register as it stood on the date of issue.
The certificate speaks to one thing, and it is worth being precise about what. It states that this is a true copy of the registered map as at the date of issue – nothing more and nothing less. That is what allows a reader who did not obtain the document to act on it.
That distinction matters more than usual on Cork City ground, where the local complication is reclaimed marshland ground in the flat of the city, where drainage and flood arrangements are registered. A line drawn against water records where that water reached when the survey was made, and where the feature has since moved, the plan and the ground describe different lines. No ordinary dealing corrects the plan for it.
A Certified Map is the document a planning authority, a solicitor, a lender or a court office will expect when a registered extent has to be proved, and for that purpose it does the job completely. What it does not do is settle an argument about precisely where a boundary lies, which is resolved through the registered instruments, the physical evidence and, where it comes to it, the courts.
It is worth being blunt about what the certificate does not do. It does not make the mapped line conclusive. Registration in Ireland operates on general boundaries: the line shows approximately where the division between two properties runs, and certifying the copy does not change that. A certified plan proves what the register maps. It does not prove where a Cork City boundary legally falls.
In practice that means the plan will tell you which parcel is registered and roughly what it covers. It will not tell you whether the wall sits on your side of the line, whether a fence was moved, or how much ground a disputed access strip amounts to. Those questions are answered by the registered instruments, the physical evidence, agreement between the parties, or ultimately the courts.
A boundary can be conclusively fixed, but that is a separate application requiring precise mapping and the agreement or notification of everyone affected, and it is uncommon. Almost every plan in use is a general boundaries plan. Knowing that before you order saves a good deal of misplaced confidence in a printed line.
Order the Certified Map where the registered extent has to be proved to someone official – a planning application, a transfer of part, a lender, a court office. It is supplied together with the Certified Folio as a single order, so you receive the certified register entry and the certified plan together rather than having to choose between them. Order the ordinary title map where you simply want to see the extent for your own purposes and nothing is being submitted anywhere. Order the Folio Search where the question is ownership and burdens rather than extent, delivered electronically within 24 hours. And if a Cork City address returns no folio, the property is unregistered and no title plan exists to certify.
| Need | Product | Price |
|---|---|---|
| You need certified evidence of the extent for a planning or formal application | Certified Map | €149.99 |
| You want to know who owns it and what burdens are registered | Folio Search, within 24 hours | €32.99 |
| You need the register entry itself in certified form | Included - the Certified Folio comes with this order | €149.99 |
| You need the wording of a burden or a past transfer | Instrument Copy | €349.99 |
| You just want to see the extent for your own information | Ordinary title map | — |
| No folio exists for the Cork City address | The title is unregistered - start with a folio search | €32.99 |
The certified plan is the right document in a defined set of situations, and the wrong one in others. Ownership, charges and the names of registered burdens are answered by the certified folio supplied alongside it rather than by the plan itself. What neither document carries is the wording of a burden, which comes from the registered instrument and is ordered separately.
It will also not resolve a boundary dispute. It shows the registered position, which is often useful context in a dispute, but the general boundaries rule means the plan is evidence of what is mapped rather than proof of where the line falls. Where a Cork City boundary is genuinely contested, the plan is a starting document rather than a deciding one.
And where the property has never been registered, there is no title plan at all. Establishing that is the job of a folio search against the address, which will tell you within 24 hours whether a registered title exists.
Certified plans for Cork City property are ordered in a fairly narrow set of situations, and it is worth knowing which one you are in before ordering.
Where a title is still unregistered there is no folio and no title plan to certify. The certified plan applies only once registration has taken place, which is why the folio search is the sensible first step.
Apartment titles map the block rather than the unit interior. The certified plan is ordered to establish the registered extent of the scheme and any mapped areas that go with the unit, such as a designated space.
River-bounded parcels need the certified plan wherever the watercourse forms the mapped division. Channels migrate over decades and the plan is not corrected for it, so the certified copy is evidence of the registered position rather than the present physical one.
Only need to see the extent for your own purposes? The ordinary title map does that without certification.
Order Certified MapThe certified plan is ordered by a fairly consistent set of people in Cork City:
Cork City is best described as a river city built on marshland islands between two channels of the Lee, with steep northern slopes. What drives the local market is the second city, with a university, harbour industry and a substantial rental market, and that is where most of the mapping work comes from.
Two things complicate Cork City mapping more than most. One is reclaimed marshland ground in the flat of the city, where drainage and flood arrangements are registered. The other is steeply sloping northside plots, where access steps, lanes and rights of way are registered.
The practical consequence for mapping is that a Cork City plan often needs reading rather than glancing at. The older core carries a meaningful share of unregistered property while suburbs are registered, so the first question is usually which registered parcel the plan relates to and whether the holding runs to more than one.
The Certified Folio for Cork City is supplied with the map as one order - extent and register entry together.
Order Certified MapDelivery is by post within 15 working days, and the Certified Folio is supplied alongside the map as one order. Because certification is applied to a physical document under seal, there is no electronic alternative – a scan of a certified map is simply a scan, and formal readers treat it as such.
Two things are worth doing if time is short. Order early, because 15 working days is roughly three calendar weeks. And order a Folio Search at the same time: it arrives electronically within 24 hours and answers ownership and burdens straight away.
Fast track delivery is available at an additional charge.
The certified title plan for a Cork City property, supplied with the Certified Folio as one order and posted within 15 working days. Fast track delivery available.
Order Certified MapProperty Records Team
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Land Registry Online - Irish property records specialists processing folio, deeds and title searches nationwide