Selling / Lease Extension

jonn81

Hi there,

We own a property where the lease has fallen below 70 years, but we also have a share of the freehold and have granted ourselves an extension, by way of a new lease.

The new lease has been signed by everyone necessary, our mortgage lender has given consent, and our solicitor has just registered it with the Land Registry.

We have also just put the property on the market and have potential buyers, but I've been told it can take 2-3 months for the Land Registry to process and register the lease. Will this have an impact where a new buyer is concerned, particularly if they are looking to mortgage the property?

martinsurrey

I'm sure when you come to sell you'll be sensible and use the same solicitor who has done the lease extension, so he can walk thier solicitor though it.

Land_Registry

Unfortunately we are currently experiencing delays in registering certain types of application, including the type you refer to.

However if an application becomes urgent, or is holding up a following transaction, you (normally the conveyancer who submitted the application) can contact us about it and we’ll see whether there is anything we can do to expedite it. We do ask applicants to limit these to cases where there is a specific issue or pressing need but something for your conveyancer to consider as the sale process gets under way.

As martinsurrey suggests some conveyancers can proceed on a purchase if they are aware of and happy with the details/evidence supplied by the seller as to what is registered and what remains to be registered.

Historically proceeding on such sales/purchases where there was a pending registration was quite common but that is not always the case nowadays.

So the simple answer is Yes it may have an impact but that will depend to a large extent on the conveyancer involved and that the actual application to register the extension is in order.