Curent Timescales for a Firtst Registration anyone???

n_earnshaw

Hi Moneysavers

We're in the process of buying a house and the vendor solicitor has lost the deeds that they were holding on behalf of the Vendor.

Unfortunately, because the vendor had lived in the house since the early 70's the deeds have never been electronically stored at the Land Registry.

As a result of losing them they have just submitted a pack to the Land Registry to apply for an Absolute Title and first registration.

Does anyone have any recent experience on how long it is taking for this kind of non standard request for registration?

All the solicitor is saying is "It could be about 5 weeks based on one we did in December"

As I've pointed out, that was over 6 months ago so may not be a good estimate.

Thanks all.

G_M

If the deeds are lost, what is the 'pack' that has been submitted.......?

To prove ownership with Title absolute' to the satisfaction of the LR is hard without the deeds. Timescales will reflect this.

n_earnshaw

sorry....."the pack" is the documentation to support the application. The house is part of a deceased estate and so the son has had to gather together the evidence to support the fact that they own it etc. They've found things such as mortgage settlement info etc and submitted these in support of the application.

marksoton

n_earnshaw wrote: »

sorry....."the pack" is the documentation to support the application. The house is part of a deceased estate and so the son has had to gather together the evidence to support the fact that they own it etc. They've found things such as mortgage settlement info etc and submitted these in support of the application.

Probate sale is never quick, even without this complication.

n_earnshaw

Yeh, was just wondering if anyone had any recent experience of timescales in respect of this particular bit as this is the part we're now currently waiting on....

G_M

Lad Registry timescales will vary hugely.

* which office? some are busier than others.
* have buyers been waiting for the referendum? There may be a rush of sales after today, swamping the LR.
* is the 'pack' sufficient/acceptable to LR?
* if LR raises a query on any aspect of the pack, how quickly will the applicant respond, assuming they know the answer or can find the further documentation requested?
* will the applicant's response to a LR query satisfy them, or result in a futher query?

I assume Probate has been granted...........?

booksurr

there is a Land Registry rep (representative) who posts on here - hopefully their search will now pick up this thread and give an answer from the horses mouth - or, novel idea, you could phone the LR and ask

Land_Registry

Thanks booksurr - unfortunately there can be a number of factors re timescales here some of which G_M has posted

The current average for a first registration is 57 working days.

Our Practice Guide 2 explains what is generally required for such an application where the deeds have been lost. The need to satisfy the registrar as to the ownership is paramount here so if that is lacking and has to be queried with the applicant this can delay the registration.

If the application is 'urgent' as in there is a linked transaction such as an onward sale the solicitor can contact us with details of the sale and request that we expedite the registration. Such a request, if approved, can reduce the timescale considerably although as you may imagine there are a number of already expedited applications in the system already.

n_earnshaw

Many thanks for the information. This helps greatly.

We'll phone up the estate agent, solicitors etc and check if they have marked it as "Urgent" as it's preventing us from purchasing it as the final link in the chain!

martindow

What about probate? I assume that can't happen until the title of the house is sorted as the executors won't know the extent of the estate until they are sure of ownership of the assets.

n_earnshaw

After hearing no update from the solicitors acting for the seller (Who submitted the first registration application 5 weeks ago now) they have simply come back stating "It'll happen when it happens and that the actual sign off only takes minutes" From the information I've seen on here and in the practice guide, it doesn't sound like an application like this would take minutes once picked up from the backlog?

I get the feeling that the solicitor isn't as interested in sorting this as we obviously are (Despite the fact they lost the deeds and are holding the whole process up!!!) They apparently marked it as urgent.....

Land_Registry_representative wrote: »

Thanks booksurr - unfortunately there can be a number of factors re timescales here some of which G_M has posted

The current average for a first registration is 57 working days.

Our Practice Guide 2 explains what is generally required for such an application where the deeds have been lost. The need to satisfy the registrar as to the ownership is paramount here so if that is lacking and has to be queried with the applicant this can delay the registration.

If the application is 'urgent' as in there is a linked transaction such as an onward sale the solicitor can contact us with details of the sale and request that we expedite the registration. Such a request, if approved, can reduce the timescale considerably although as you may imagine there are a number of already expedited applications in the system already.