Unregistered property - who pays ???

losgiganteskid

OK - a property is unregistered (as it was last sold prior to the requirements coming into force to register with Land Registry) when it comes to the current purchase of the property (which now has to be registered at a cost of £200 + vat) - who pays ? the seller or the purchaser ?:cool:

anselld

Well it will be the purchasers solicitor who organises for the registration so the purchaser, though obviously this could be negotiated off the selling price.

losgiganteskid

The case in question the seller got lumbered with the £240 fee - no mention made that he would be responsible, just added to his bill from his own solicitor. Is it possible that the buyers solicitors registered the property (and possibly charged the buyer) and the sellers solicitors added the same costs to the sellers bill ??

G_M

If I was the seller, I would be asking my solicitor why this was being charged to me.

Unless it had previously been agreed.

losgiganteskid

Exactly what I thought

Crystallady

When I worked at a solicitors there were occasions when we acted for the buyer and requested the sellers solicitor to register the property. Usually this was when the route of title was unclear/incomplete and/or statutory declarations were required. I would assume they then charged their client for the work.

losgiganteskid

In the case in question there was absolutely no question regarding the title being unclear or incomplete, the seller produced a full set of title deeds

ValHaller

In which case purchaser should pay to register. It is only in situations such as crystallady refers to that the purchaser is required to register - more than anything as the easiest way of proving good title without going back and forth between solicitors and leaving buyer's solicitor to sort it without access to the people who know.

terryw

FWIIW, the Land Registry offer a reduced fee for voluntary registration. From a practical point of view this is probably a good idea as it it will make the subsequent disposal easier and quicker. In any case, it is likely that there will be compulsory registration at some future date and the reduced fees are unlikely to be available then.

I hope that the compulsory registration comes into force in my lifetime! I am curious to know who owns the (aprox) 50 per cent of land which is not registered.

G_M

terryw wrote: »

FWIIW, the Land Registry offer a reduced fee for voluntary registration. From a practical point of view this is probably a good idea as it it will make the subsequent disposal easier and quicker. In any case, it is likely that there will be compulsory registration at some future date and the reduced fees are unlikely to be available then.

I hope that the compulsory registration comes into force in my lifetime! I am curious to know who owns the (aprox) 50 per cent of land which is not registered.

The Queen and the Church are probably the biggest landlowners in Britain, and they rarely sell it......

Richard_Webster

There are two different issues here.

The buyer always pays the Land Registry fee for the transfer to him. The fee is the same whether the property is registered or unregistered so he doesn't lose out in that way.

In the vast majority of cases there would be no reason for a seller to register his title, unless e.g. there were some doubts about whether it would be acceptable to the Land Registry. It is a conveyancing solicitor's job to know if a title will be acceptable, so the issues would have to be quite obscure for this to apply.

However if the title is unregistered both sets of solicitors have a little more work to do - and this is more the case for the buyer's solicitor. So they could add to their professional fees for such extra work.