Registered charge

darlington14

Hello, I am hoping someone can help with this. I purchased a property in May last year but the title was not registered at the Land registry until October last year. Between the completion and the registration a registered disposition was placed on my property against the previous owner. I was unaware of this until now when I am trying to sell the property. The company who have registered the charge will not lift it until the previous owner has paid the debt. How can that be I own the property mortgage free, it is free hold and he has no interest in it?

theartfullodger

What does your solicitor who handled the purchase say about both this & why Land Registry change was delayed until October?

darlington14

The Solicitor is out of the office and not replying to emails. I have asked why there was a delay, why the charge was registered after I bought it. I would not of thought that a charge could be placed on my property against a previous owner

DRP

darlington14 wrote: »

The Solicitor is out of the office and not replying to emails. I have asked why there was a delay, why the charge was registered after I bought it. I would not of thought that a charge could be placed on my property against a previous owner

Have you tried ringing or visiting the office? Surely there is another member of staff who can talk to you? Don't be fobbed off!!

darlington14

They need the previous owner to speak to the company to remove the charge, but he cant pay it off. I am gobsmacked that a charge can be placed against a property he no longer owns

Land_Registry

There's probably not enough detail here to offer too much advice other than to set out some of the basic and relevant conveyancing points followed when buying a property.

Part of that process involves checking the registered title to confirm ownership and any registered interests (inc charges)

Once done you proceed with the purchase and then lodge an official search with priority (OS1) which most people refer to as 'freezing' the title for 30 business days so if another application is lodged during that period your protected application can take priority.

The devil though is in the detail as to what conveyancing process your solicitor followed and what the 'registered disposition' your refer to actually is.

If the registration was delayed this should not affect the priority of any applications/searches but the order of events/actions is vital for any understanding.

Your solicitor should be able to explain what has happened

darlington14

Thank you I will email you with the title number. But can someone put a charge on a property against someone who does not own it. Or if it the solicitors fault are they liable for not being able to sell the property?

Land_Registry

Anything is possible providing they can support any claim/registration but where it happens then it is always something to take up with the solicitor who acted to understand what options, inc recourse against them, are available.

Thank you for your email and I have checked the title and responded directly to you. For the benefit of others the basic details are as follows

Original application to register the May 2013 purchase was lodged in July 2013 but subsequently cancelled in Oct 2013 as certain points had not been resolved by the lodging solicitor. The May 2013 Transfer was of part of the larger sellers' title.

In August and September 2013 two restrictions were registered against the seller's title to protect two charging orders issued against one of the sellers.

In Oct 2013 the application to register the purchase was resubmitted and then completed in Feb 2014. The restrictions were both complied with but in the absence of an application to withdraw/cancel them and without any evidence to indicate that they did not affect the purchased property they were both carried forward to the purchased title.

In order to now remove the restrictions we would need an application to either withdraw or cancel them. As the beneficiaries have refused to withdraw them the onus is on the solicitor to now apply for cancellation and to supply evidence to support such an application.

It is unfortunate here that the original application was not completed when originally submitted. If it had been then the title would have been registered free of such interests as they were submitted later.

The points re 'priority' mentioned in the previous posts would probably not have come in to play here as the live application would have afforded adequate priority if it had been completed.

Hopefully your solicitor will be able to explain things in more detail for you and also submit the required application to cancel along with any evidence to support the cancellation.

Finally, I should stress that it is likely that this may take a few weeks to process mainly because it is likely that we will have to serve Notice on the beneficiary. As they have indicated their objection to any removal then this may mean they will object to their removal. Until such an application is though submitted, considered and Notices (if any) served we will simply not know the outcome. This is again something your solicitor should be able to advise on,

DRP

Land_Registry_representative wrote: »

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Finally, I should stress that it is likely that this may take a few weeks to process mainly because it is likely that we will have to serve Notice on the beneficiary. As they have indicated their objection to any removal then this may mean they will object to their removal. Until such an application is though submitted, considered and Notices (if any) served we will simply not know the outcome. This is again something your solicitor should be able to advise on,

Thanks for the explanation.

Does this mean the OP has no means to remove the charge (without going to court) unless the beneficiary agrees?

Or can the land registry make the decision to remove the charge at this stage?

Land_Registry

These sorts of issue rely very much on the specific circumstances in a given case so it is impossible to generalise.

The issue in this example is really whether the restrictions and what they protect, namely the charging orders, have been overreached in some way I suspect but the devil is in the detail and the onus is very much on the applicant to provide the evidence, legislative or otherwise, to secure their cancellation.

I should also add that I am still looking into this and will post again if anything changes.

Land_Registry

Just to update on this one - the local office have had a look at this one and are considering removal of the restrictions from the title on the basis that they were probably overreached as mentioned above.

They will deal directly with the solicitor who acted so hopefully there will be a positive outcome to this example.