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Unilateral Notice - what to do? Please help!

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Hi all,
I hope someone can advise me what should I do.
I have purchased property (mortgage) in September 2007. Everything went well, search from the solicitor came with no highlights and no reasons why I would not buy the property so I have proceeded and bank paid 90% of the value of the property to the seller with remaining 10% of deposit paid by me.
Last couple of weeks I decided to remortgage this property and everything was going smooth to the point where selected by new lender solicitor firm highlighted to me that there is Unilateral Notice registered to my property on 3rd November 2006. One year before I purchased property.
They have advised that without removing that unilateral notice the new lender will not release funds.
Remember I had no clue that this thing sat against my property!
I have contacted beneficiary of that which is SWIFT Advances Plc and they told me they would not remove the notice as there is some sort of "unfinished business" but they would not advise me what it is and sent me back to my solicitors who assisted with the purchase.
I tried contacting them but this firm stopped the practice in 2010 so they do not exist any longer.
I really do not know what to do so any suggestion would be highly appreciated.

Comments

  • System
    System Posts: 178,342 Community Admin
    10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    I have seen this come up before on this forum so might be worth a search.

    Looks like they registered an interest in a property rather than a charge regarding the secured loan
    This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com
  • HPowell
    HPowell Posts: 11 Forumite
    You can either remove or cancel that unilateral notice. Cancellation will be done by the owner of the estate of which the notice is registered against. The person can apply to Land registry for cancellation. While removal is only able to be done by the beneficiary of the notice.
  • zielinir
    zielinir Posts: 9 Forumite
    Walcott wrote: »
    I have seen this come up before on this forum so might be worth a search.

    Looks like they registered an interest in a property rather than a charge regarding the secured loan

    Thanks, I have done multiple searches on the forum and went through hundreds of threads but none of them was similar to mine :(
  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Here's one old thread on here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/609181

    Didn't read it, so no idea if it's relevant.
  • zielinir
    zielinir Posts: 9 Forumite
    HPowell wrote: »
    You can either remove or cancel that unilateral notice. Cancellation will be done by the owner of the estate of which the notice is registered against. The person can apply to Land registry for cancellation. While removal is only able to be done by the beneficiary of the notice.

    That's what I'm thinking but I bet the beneficiary of the notice will object - at least it will help me to understand what does it relate to!
  • zielinir
    zielinir Posts: 9 Forumite
    Here's one old thread on here [

    Didn't read it, so no idea if it's relevant.

    Thanks, I have seen that thread.

    The problem in my case is I have purchased the property with the Unilateral Notice applied on Land Registry.
    The solicitor did not highlight this and they told me it's good to go - I have paper work to prove that but the solicitor firm does not exist.
    The question I need answer to is whether I can challenge the Unilateral Notice as the debt is not mine.
    The next step I'm going to do is to file UN4 with Land Registry.
  • Annie1960
    Annie1960 Posts: 3,009 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/solicitor-closed-down.page#video

    The SRA will be able to tell you where your files went when your solicitor closed down.
  • zielinir
    zielinir Posts: 9 Forumite
    Annie1960 wrote: »

    The SRA will be able to tell you where your files went when your solicitor closed down.

    Thanks,
    logged request with them, lets see what happpens
  • zielinir wrote: »
    Hi all,
    I hope someone can advise me what should I do.
    I have purchased property (mortgage) in September 2007. Everything went well, search from the solicitor came with no highlights and no reasons why I would not buy the property so I have proceeded and bank paid 90% of the value of the property to the seller with remaining 10% of deposit paid by me.
    Last couple of weeks I decided to remortgage this property and everything was going smooth to the point where selected by new lender solicitor firm highlighted to me that there is Unilateral Notice registered to my property on 3rd November 2006. One year before I purchased property.
    They have advised that without removing that unilateral notice the new lender will not release funds.
    Remember I had no clue that this thing sat against my property!
    I have contacted beneficiary of that which is SWIFT Advances Plc and they told me they would not remove the notice as there is some sort of "unfinished business" but they would not advise me what it is and sent me back to my solicitors who assisted with the purchase.
    I tried contacting them but this firm stopped the practice in 2010 so they do not exist any longer.
    I really do not know what to do so any suggestion would be highly appreciated.

    Hi did you ever get this resolved? I am having exactly the same issue and I'm going out my mind to try to get it resolved. We completed the purchase of our home in 2013, and am currently attempting to remortgage however have been told by Optima Legal that they will not transfer the funds until a Unilateral notice has been removed. We were not informed about this from our conveyancer (PCS) when we purchased the property, the unilateral notice is with SSE. I am going out of my mind trying to chase our previous solicitors (PCS) they seem to be dragging their feet, its been almost 8 weeks and I've gotten nowhere, all the while paying SVR on my mortgage! Should I have been told about the unilateral notice prior to purchase of the house? If not, is there anything I can do about it? Can I cancel the unilateral notice myself? Or must it be removed by SSE? (not really sure what "beneficiary" refers to with regards to cancelling a unilateral notice. Any advice or help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks it advance
  • TBagpuss
    TBagpuss Posts: 11,236 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Yes, you should have ben told by your conveyancers, as the notice should have shown up on the Ofice Copyu Entris.

    Normally your conveyancers would require a specific undertaking from your seller's solicitor to get the notice removed in the same way that they wouild need to get any pre-exisiting charge removed.

    The 'beneficiary' means the person (or company) benefitting from the notice, so it would be SSE in your case.

    You can (as the registerered proprietor of the land) apply to have the notice cancelled - see s.2.8 of this https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notices-restrictions-and-the-protection-of-third-party-interests-in-the-register/practice-guide-19-notices-restrictions-and-the-protection-of-third-party-interests-in-the-register#nature

    This serves notice on the beneficiary and they must then provide an arguable ase that they are entitled to have the notice still registered - this might be as little as providing evidence that the previous owner owes them money. It looks as though making the formal application for the notice to be cancelled would then give SSE a specifc time limit of 15 days to respond.
    All posts are my personal opinion, not formal advice Always get proper, professional advice (particularly about anything legal!)
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