Land Registry Problem

m1kjm

I have recently bought the house next door to mine and knocked through so I have two separate titles for effectively one house.

My house insurance was up for renewal recently and I could not find an insurer prepared to accept this situation - they all wanted to have the one house on one title.

I did find one expensive insurer who would insure the house on the basis that I would start the process with the Land Registry so I paid the premium and applied to the Land Registry to amalgamate the two titles.

Today I have been told that 'the Land Registry's current work situation precludes, for the time being, applications for amalgamation being accepted, unless some positive advantage accrues to a number of prospective purchasers (...) or if the request does not add to our workload...'

How helpful!

I'm going to have to update my insurer and ask for more time and I'm going to write back to the Land Registry and tell them that home insurance is a positive advantage for me.

Does the Land Registry rep know when the Land Registry might start doing amalgamations again?

Land_Registry

m1kjm - sorry for such a slow response on this one

I'm afraid we don't know when we will be able to start taking on amalgamation requests but we are working hard to reduce the current delays which are being experienced on certain types of application.

The delays are mainly to do with applications where we have to map a new title and this will always happen with an amalgamation. As you know from our response an amalgamation is not required from a registration perspective so avoiding adding these to our workload is one step to helping us tackle the current delays.

Hopefully a copy of our letter rejecting your application will satisfy your insurer.

Out of interest, and I appreciate that you may not have been made aware, did the insurers cite a reason as to why they would only deal with one title?

davidmcn

m1kjm wrote: »

My house insurance was up for renewal recently and I could not find an insurer prepared to accept this situation - they all wanted to have the one house on one title.

At what stage in the proposal form did this come up? I can't recall an insurer ever asking (and I'm not sure why it would be relevant to them).

m1kjm

Thank you ever so much for getting back to me. I do appreciate I posted the question outside of office hours so I didn't expect you to answer straight away.

It came about because I now have twice the number of rooms so I had to tell the broker at renewal in order to update the property's details and of course I had to be honest because there's no point me paying a premium if the insurer refuses to pay out on a claim when I need them to.

The broker checked with the only insurance company they had which would entertain the situation, and they said, one house needs to be on one set of deeds, two houses with two deeds and a big hole in the wall is two houses but what affects one, e.g. fire, will affect the other because of the big hole. I could just imagine them trying to wriggle out of paying a claim by saying, one house has to be on one title, if you've got two titles there's still two houses.

I rang round loads of other insurers and they all said no straight away or checked with their manager/underwriter who said no.

King_Slayer

Is it possible to have two separate policies? Not sure how the new lay out may affect the number of rooms bit, however cannot see why this won't work until the land registry is able to accept amalgamation.

Not sure whether you have a mortgage. However if you do, I would imagine that it will imagine it will be a criteria of your mortgage to have insurance.

m1kjm

King_Slayer wrote: »

Is it possible to have two separate policies? Not sure how the new lay out may affect the number of rooms bit, however cannot see why this won't work until the land registry is able to accept amalgamation.

Not sure whether you have a mortgage. However if you do, I would imagine that it will imagine it will be a criteria of your mortgage to have insurance.

No mortgages.

It's fire that worries me as I think the big hole in the wall with next door would invalidate two policies because they're not two self-contained houses and the fire/smoke would go through the hole to next door.

Land_Registry

Thanks for advising on the rationale behind their blank No in most cases - insurance is not my expertise though.

They will have their reasons obviously although doubtless are happy to insure a property where say the garden ground is registered under a separate title as the house is still seen by them as being a single house + garden.

It is an unfortunate scenario although I would imagine that the premium was always going to be high anyway in comparison with others for the reason highlighted.

Hopefully our current situation re workloads will improve and we can entertain a request for amalgamation in the near future for you

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

OP - it may be worth going to see your MP. I had a similar situation with a different branch of our Civil Service, and a strongly worded letter from them worked wonders.