No Land Registry details

leftatthelights

Hi all,

I just wanted your opinion on this issue we have.
We have had an offer accepted on a property, done the survey, searches etc and are at the stage of the solicitors confirming the land registry details so they can be passed over to us.

This is the only outstanding issue before we agree a completion/exchange date, the trouble is, they are finding it difficult to find the land registry details and it is holding up the sale quite a bit now (been waiting for 3 weeks).

I have gone on the land registry website: https://www.landregistry.gov.uk

and have input the details of the property (house number and postcode) and it says:

"Sorry, we do not have a record of any titles for this property. This does not necessarily mean that the property is unregistered".

Does anybody have any idea if this is common and if not, what are the implications???

Thanks.

terryw

A little puzzle. Normally the LR are great to deal with.

Only a guess, but perhaps the wrong postcode has been used. Try the house next door and see if that one appears.

The purchaser's solicitors would have registered their title. Check via your solicitor to see the property address and description and postcode used when they bought it. It would be usual for a copy of the registration form and transfer to be dept in their file along with the confirmation from the LR that it has been registered.

It might not be registered but this would be a very very long shot if the property has been bought in the last twenty years or so.

when it gets sorted please come back to let us know what the problem was to assist others. thanks

leftatthelights

Hi terry,

I have tried either side of the house on the land registry and both properties came up ok.

We have copies of all the title deeds etc with the HIPS pack (the house was put on the market before HIPS was abolished).

The house was bought in 1962 and had not been sold at any point until now. The couple that bought it back then had lived in it all their lives but they recently passed away so it is their daughter who is selling the property.

I hope that info will help??

RAS

If the house was last sold in 1962, it is quite possible that it has never been registered with the LR. In 1968, registration was voluntary and only became compulsory later.

So you are going to have to do an initial regsitration.

terryw

OK. At this point is looks as though it is not registered. It would be normal for it to be sold to you with the daughter as exececutor. You would then register it (via your solicitor). The mechanics of this are straightforward, but I have little doubt that your solicitor will make a bit of a song and dance and charge you a bit more. Chase them up but be civil by asking if there is anything that you can do to help! I am guessing here that the delay is that the lady's solicitors are hunting out the probate stuff.

I am working from memory here, but in order to show "title" it is necessary to show that the property has been in in their hands for over fifteen years. This will involve the Transfer to the old deceased folks and copies of the death certificates together with the probate.

Just to be on the safe side, have a mooch through the "deeds" to see if there is anything with a LR number on.

Land registration came in gradually over a hundred years or so, and it looks as if this property is in an area which was not compulsory to register back in the sixties.

For the benefit of other readers, all land can be registered now and I believe that there is still a hefty discount for voluntary registration. It makes sense to do this as sooner or later the powers that be will insist that all land currently unregistered has to be registered. You can bet your bottom dollar that fees will rise then!

I am really looking forward to this day of compulsory registration. Purely out of curiosity I would like to know who owns these vast swathes of unregistered land. Sorry to have gone off-topic a bit.

leftatthelights

Thanks RAS, what you said seems to stack up!

leftatthelights

Thanks terry,

That was a very detailed response!:D

I will take what you have said and get this property purchase back on track.

Thanks a lot guys, extremely helpful!:T

neverdespairgirl

Could well be unregistered land with those dates. No problem, but might take a bit longer.

terryw

leftatthelights wrote: »

Thanks terry,

That was a very detailed response!:D

I will take what you have said and get this property purchase back on track.

Thanks a lot guys, extremely helpful!:T

Thanks for the thanks Mr Lights. Please come back back when the whole thing is done and dusted and let us know the final story purely for the benefit of others.

If anything here has helped you - power to your elbow. But you are
honour bound, to come back if a newbie asks "Does the red wire go into the top thingie on the plug?" with the correct answer!:D


House-dealings really are stressful, but 99.9999 per cent of the time they work out ok.

bw

MotownFox

I can't believe that the persons dealing with the conveyancing did not know about the property being unregistered.
I've worked at Solicitors and one of the first jobs when either sellling a property or buying one is to get copies of the Land Registry details. If they're not there at the Land Registry then it must be unregistered and as mentioned above you have to go through the process of registration.

The Land registry would want copies of the Original deeds and if title was in Joint names and both had died the death certificates of both of them and Probate/Letters of Administration for the one that died last. If it was held as Tenants in Common then Probate would be needed for both estates. This situation happened to me once when a sale was almost done when it was discovered Probate had not been granted on the first death and was needed as the Property HAD NOT passed by survivorship, so had to be submitted to the Probate Court in a hurry else the property sale would have been lost!!

leftatthelights

Morning guys,

I will certainly do what you asked terry (including the plug thingy advice):D:D

Hi motown, the thing is, once we had put the initial offer in and it was accepted, the first thing I did was to check the land registry website and that is when I discovered the missing info.
I should've said something at the time but with the sale being dealt with by solicitors, I naturally assumed that these details would be picked up on and corrected.

Obviously not because it has become an issue now which is hindering the sale.

Fortunately, we are in rented accomodation an are not in a big rush to complete!:)

I have been looking through the HIPS report and I cannot see/find any land registry number or any mention of it?