Can the land registry be wrong?

wessexw

I'm a first time buyer and have recently come across a flat that I'm seriously thinking about, so I looked it up on the land registry and say that it was last sold only last summer for a price 30k more than the current asking price! Spoke to the estate agent about and they gave what could be a legit story for the vendor wanting to move out so soon, but they said that the 30k+ price on the land registry was wrong and that the property went for a price slightly less than the current asking price last summer. The same estate agent made the sale last year. Is it possible for the registry to be wrong? Or is it more likely that the estate agent is lying?

Fire_Fox

You already know the answer to that question!

dodgy

The LR says we sold our house five months ago for £20K more than we paid eight months ago when we moved in .. despite the fact that we didn't sell it.

LR can be wrong.

Richard_Webster

LR takes the figure on the transfer deed. If the seller had allowed a discount that wouldn't show. Builders were doing this all the time to fool people that their newbuilds were worth more than the prices that were actually negotiated....

wessexw

So Richard, I'm guessing that means something like the title deed says they paid 280k but in reality the buyer only handed 245k over? I can see why builder might do that but this particular properly is a flat in an old Victorian house, I can't really think of any reason to do that in a property such as that

Richard_Webster

So Richard, I'm guessing that means something like the title deed says they paid 280k but in reality the buyer only handed 245k over? I can see why builder might do that but this particular properly is a flat in an old Victorian house, I can't really think of any reason to do that in a property such as that

I agree, it does sound silly - particularly since buyer would be stuck with heavy SDLT bill!

You can tell the price by looking in the HIP at the Land Registry entries where it should say that the price paid on [date] was £xxx,xxx.

mlz1413

Why does the previous price matter?

People move for all sorts of reasons, if you are happy with the property and the survey is ok then all that remains is that you pay a price you are consider fair at this current time.