do I own the house I'm paying for? timescales for paperwork after you complete

bobbie78

I completed on a house on the 27th of july and am happy and settled in. I am still waiting for the paperwork to catch up though.

I have rung the solicitors a couple of times to ask for the indemnity insurance cert and other docs but they kept saying the land registry had them. So just to be nosy I rang the local land registry office today just to see how long things took to register some land and it be in my name all proper like (well northern rocks - yes i know) anyway they don't have the paperwork, they said they only show one search? from northern rock before the exchange date.

So I rang the solicitors again, they said they were probably waiting for a form from the tax people about the stamp duty but they would ring me back before they sent it all to the land registry, they haven't rung back yet.

So am I being paranoid wanting all the paperwork done considering the hell I went through fighting estate agents etc to get the place or shouldn't I worry. Are there any legal implications for it not being done? All advice on this welcome, I'm not interested in comments about my mortgage company or the wrong time to buy, thanks to anyone that can help set my mind at ease.

Richard_Webster

So I rang the solicitors again, they said they were probably waiting for a form from the tax people about the stamp duty

Getting the SDLT clearance form back can take time and delay registration.

They often also have to wait for confirmation of discharge of your seller's mortgage. The seller's solicitor would have sent the money on the day of completion but it can take weeks for the discharge document to come through. I don't know of any major problems in this respect at the moment, but about 5 years ago one major national lender was a standing joke amongst solicitors and the Land Registry for the time it took to send discharges through. Maybe another lender is having a similar problem.

Usually once the completion has taken place the title will eventually be registered in your name. Things can go wrong, but this is actually pretty rare in practice. In the nature of things if a solicitor is busy dealing with people wanting to move next week he cannot always give the highest priority to post completion issues.

By the way things like indemnity insurances don't need to go to the Land Registry and if your lender does not want them (some do, some don't) then your solicitors could send that kind of thing to you now.

bobbie78

Well I heard back from them today, they have got the tax form they don't have the transfer form and they appear to have lost the version I signed when I went in and did all the other paperwork. Thanks for the reply above though that helps me a bit.

So if the vendors haven't signed the transfer of ownership form is it really my house? They are going to get me to sign the back page of this form again so when the eventually get this form from the vendor then they can send things to the land registry. I'm not convinced they have the indemnity documents which is why I keep asking them about them but they kept fobbing me off. How important is this transfer of ownership form? is the house really mine? (well the banks)

bobbie78

bump, need advice on how worried I should be.

Debt_Free_Chick

bobbie78 wrote: »

So if the vendors haven't signed the transfer of ownership form is it really my house?

I believe so, yes - as you have the contract in place. This form is simply to register you as the legal owner at the Land Registry. Even if you are not (yet) registered, you are still the legal owner - it's just that this hasn't (yet) been recorded on the Land Registry.

I'm not convinced they have the indemnity documents which is why I keep asking them about them but they kept fobbing me off.

Whilst the indemnity documents are important to you, they are completely separate from the ownership issue.

must-resist-ebay

The land registry don't need the copy of the transfer that you signed, they only need the signature of the transferor (person selling the house).
Although I would be shouting at the sols if they had lost the form sent by the sellers sols at exchange as without this the land can't be registered (well it can but it's not easy)

bobbie78

rang for an update today. They said they did have the transfer form, I said really last week you said you didn't have it, the week before that you said the land registry had all the documents, they said oh well we must have it. Much back and forth with me saying why should I believe a word they say right now? they went off to check the file and re-group.

They called back and they still don't have a form signed by the vendor transferring the ownership of the house to me, they last sent a fax on the 5th to the vendors solicitor requesting this. So I'm still up in the air I guess, and next step is research about what bodies they belong too if this whole thing does get any worse, if I can't make them do anything to help get this registered as I stupidly paid them already when I gave them the stamp duty money.

Richard_Webster

Solicitors rely on professional trust and undertakings given by each firm. Very occasionally the seller's solicitor will wrongly allow completion to take place when he hasn't got the transfer deed signed by his client. He should not do this, but it happens. If this is what happened in OP's case then the responsibility lies with the seller's solicitors.

I have a case which I am completing today. A new lease of a flat is being granted and the freeholder is in France. We exchanged contracts for completion today and his solicitors sent the lease for their client to sign. With the postal strike, earlier this week the seller's solicitors faxed me a letter suggesting a way round the problem of how the matter could be completed without the documents. This involved sending the money to them but they not releasing it to their client until they had the signed document. It was not ideal, but they were doing the best they could in the circumstances, which really were beyond the control of all the people involved. As it happens the documents arrived in time and the completion will go ahead straightforwardly. The point is though that my seller's solicitors acted correctly and professionally and came clean about an obvious problem outside their control.

Looks to me like the seller's solicitors fouled up.

Debt_Free_Chick

I think as Richard says, this is less of a problem with your solicitor and more a case of the sellers' solicitor - as well as the sellers themselves - not "doing their bit".

By all means keep on top of your solicitor, but the actual signing of the form is not within their control. All they can do is nag the other side.

PasturesNew

Personally, I've never ever seen anybody wonder/worry about this before, or even be interested/aware of the process. What normally happens is:
You buy the house, get the keys, move your stuff in, go down the pub.
End of.

bobbie78

I just want to get my house in order as they say, also I have a northern rock mortgage so I wanted to make sure everything was sorted at the land registry in case anything bad happened.

Do you think it is worth trying to find out where the seller lives now and speak to them direct to get the forms signed or am I really just over reacting about the whole thing? It just seems to me 3 months is long enough to have people drag their feet over something like this and if I don't get it sorted out how much longer will it go on for? I just don't want it to cause me trouble in years to come if it isn't sorted out.