Land Registry questions

Land_Registry

keepersgate36 wrote: »

Hi,

Not sure if I need to do something about this or how to proceed.
A number of years ago, when moving lenders, the intended new lender raised a concern about certain restrictive covenants that were on our register. They seemed to imply that we could not sell our house without either a) a court order or b) a certificate from the original land owner.
Obviously absurd, we took up the matter with the house developer and their solicitor and duly (after some time) received a letter that the latter had been sorted. We passed this on to the lender and the mortgage went through.
Since we have paid off our mortgage and I have downloaded our register to check that the charge had been removed (We didn't get a written confirmation that this had been done from the lender). The strange restrictions are still there.
They read as follows
'3 (16.02.2006) RESTRICTION: No disposition by a sole proprietor of the
registered estate (except a trust corporation) under which capital
money arises is to be registered unless authorised by an order of the
court.
4 (16.02.2006) RESTRICTION: No disposition of the registered estate by
the proprietor of the registered estate or by the proprietor of any
registered charge is to be registered without a certificate signed by
the conveyancer of the proprietor of the registered estate or charge
(as the case may be) that the provisions of clause 21 of the Agreement
dated 20 May 2004 made between (1) xxxxx, xxxxx and (2) xxxxx
have been complied with.'

Also, section C states that there are restrictive covenants.


Should we go through the process we went through several years ago again?

Thanks

These are three very distinct and separate entries so it may help to unravel them a little although you don;t mention what it is you are now trying to do with the property.

The first is known as a form A restriction and our online guidance explains more and certain circumstances when it might be applied for and registered.
If you were both remortgaging at the time, then it would not have stopped you from doing so.

The second is a Restriction and I very much suspect that this is the one that stopped you from remortgaging as it restricts any disposition by you so would have caught a remortgage, sale etc.
Whilst 'obviously absurd' if that is what was agreed at that time and registered then it's factual albeit that may not have been the intention to stop a remortgage for example.
Our PG 18 section 3 explains how restrictions can be cancelled, withdrawn or disapplied for example. I suspect you may wish to consider applying to cancel it and as such I would recommend that you seek legal advice as well

The third are restrictive covenants imposed by a Seller at some time in the past when the land/property was sold off/transferred. These would not prevent a remortgage

Tim1961

Hi,
I own a leasehold property on which a lease extension is being finalised in the next few days. I went down the formal Section 42 notice process, commencing in November 2018. At the same time, as my current mortgage term was expiring I sought to remortgage. I applied for and received a mortgage offer in December 2018 though when it reached the mortgage company's solicitors in January they advised it could not continue as the lease only had 81 years left and their minimum was 85, despite the fact the postion was clearly included on my application form and there was no previous note of this criteria. They have advised that they will need the new lease to be registered prior to them processing the remortgage and as the lease progress inched along, there is now no way that under normal circumstances the Land Registry will register the lease before my mortgage offer expires on 17 June.

My question, and I am hoping the Land Registry poster will advise, is: If my solictors explain my circumstances with a request to expedite the registration, will this be agreed to by LR? I can supply evidence of my initial mortgage application, the mortgage offer and correspondence from the mortgage company's solicitors. I would much prefer to stick with the acceptable new mortgage terms rather than start again, when the terms may not be available and I go through a further delay of starting a second application with survey etc etc.
For info, mortgage co has said their offer is not extendable beyond June.

If the answer is yes, how long will it take for the registration to take via the expedited route?
Also, other than what I've explained above, is there any further information LR would require?

Thanks in advance

keepersgate36

Thanks for your quick reply and I will have a look at the references you have included above.
To provide some context, we are neither trying to remortgage nor sell the property, but, don't like any lingering issues. I believe the absurdity arose when the original land owner sold to the developer and didn't want the land sold on if it was not used for housing. I do not believe that the restriction should have been transferred to the individual plots and that a mistake was made at the point of sale. I think there are other plots on the estate that are suffering from the same issue.
Nevertheless, I am assuming there are no other methods other than through our solicitors to rectify the situation?

puffintail

Land_Registry wrote: »

Do you know the title number involved please?

Hello

The Solicitor should now have made the application for the Land Registry update...finally...

Would you able to check this, please? WK482472

My mortgage provider have said they are happy to proceed with my full mortgage application for the new property knowing that the Transfer of Equity is complete and the application to the land Registry is in process, which is great, however the solicitor hasn't yet sent this confirmation to the mortgage provider despite numerous chases. My nerves are in tatters - the hope of achieving the (once very viable) completion date on my new property of 12th April is quickly fading.

Land_Registry

keepersgate36 wrote: »

Thanks for your quick reply and I will have a look at the references you have included above.
To provide some context, we are neither trying to remortgage nor sell the property, but, don't like any lingering issues. I believe the absurdity arose when the original land owner sold to the developer and didn't want the land sold on if it was not used for housing. I do not believe that the restriction should have been transferred to the individual plots and that a mistake was made at the point of sale. I think there are other plots on the estate that are suffering from the same issue.
Nevertheless, I am assuming there are no other methods other than through our solicitors to rectify the situation?

Correct - such restrictions are invariably carried forward on plot sales unless an application is made to withdraw or cancel them at the time. For example if the consent was required on that first sale the applicant should have also got the restrictioner to withdraw their restriction or to consent to the withdrawal as well

I assume from your comment that this did not happen at the time. It is what is now required or an application to cancel it with supporting evidence to show that for example it was never intended to restrict in the way it is now doing. Your solicitor will need to consider and advise as appropriate as based on the specific details involved.

Land_Registry

puffintail wrote: »

Hello

The Solicitor should now have made the application for the Land Registry update...finally...

Would you able to check this, please? WK482472

My mortgage provider have said they are happy to proceed with my full mortgage application for the new property knowing that the Transfer of Equity is complete and the application to the land Registry is in process, which is great, however the solicitor hasn't yet sent this confirmation to the mortgage provider despite numerous chases. My nerves are in tatters - the hope of achieving the (once very viable) completion date on my new property of 12th April is quickly fading.

It was received today so hopefully it should be done in good time providing it is in order of course.

MKhaffaf

Good morning,
Thank you for your response. We acquired the freehold of our house under leasehold reform act 1967 NOT informally. My understanding is that when purchasing the freehold under this act, it should be free from encumbrances required by s8(1) of the Leasehold reform act 1967.
We completed the purchase and paid the freehold fees in full and submitted the application for title transfer to Land Registry (already registered), however the freeholder put restriction of disposition 2 weeks after we completed the purchase! Could you please advise on how this restriction still applies or the Land Registry should be informed that the freehold purchase was done under Act 1967, therefore this not necessarily applies. We are at a desperate situation, we found a buyer for our house, but pulled out due to leasehold situation.
Many thanks for your advise in advance

Adamtrappett

Hello,

Our solicitor is out of the office for a while and we are worried she may have received an update but her colleagues aren't the most helpful in her absence
Is it possible you could check for an update for us.

Title number -SF559441.

Thanks again for your help, our buyer is on our back.
Adam

Land_Registry

Tim1961 wrote: »

Hi,
I own a leasehold property on which a lease extension is being finalised in the next few days. I went down the formal Section 42 notice process, commencing in November 2018. At the same time, as my current mortgage term was expiring I sought to remortgage. I applied for and received a mortgage offer in December 2018 though when it reached the mortgage company's solicitors in January they advised it could not continue as the lease only had 81 years left and their minimum was 85, despite the fact the postion was clearly included on my application form and there was no previous note of this criteria. They have advised that they will need the new lease to be registered prior to them processing the remortgage and as the lease progress inched along, there is now no way that under normal circumstances the Land Registry will register the lease before my mortgage offer expires on 17 June.

My question, and I am hoping the Land Registry poster will advise, is: If my solictors explain my circumstances with a request to expedite the registration, will this be agreed to by LR? I can supply evidence of my initial mortgage application, the mortgage offer and correspondence from the mortgage company's solicitors. I would much prefer to stick with the acceptable new mortgage terms rather than start again, when the terms may not be available and I go through a further delay of starting a second application with survey etc etc.
For info, mortgage co has said their offer is not extendable beyond June.

If the answer is yes, how long will it take for the registration to take via the expedited route?
Also, other than what I've explained above, is there any further information LR would require?

Thanks in advance

Evidence of an expiring mortgage offer would normally be sufficient but much also depends on whether this is the only application or whether others, affecting the freehold title, have priority. If there are then that can prevent expedition taking place.

You do not mention if the application has yet been submitted but if it has and it is several weeks old we may take the view that mid June is still some way off - I mention that just in case it has been submitted and may be nearing the end of the current average timescale

If we do approve expedition then the application will normally be considered within 10 working days. And then everything hinges on it being in order and not requiring any wider checks/consideration

Land_Registry

MKhaffaf wrote: »

Good morning,
Thank you for your response. We acquired the freehold of our house under leasehold reform act 1967 NOT informally. My understanding is that when purchasing the freehold under this act, it should be free from encumbrances required by s8(1) of the Leasehold reform act 1967.
We completed the purchase and paid the freehold fees in full and submitted the application for title transfer to Land Registry (already registered), however the freeholder put restriction of disposition 2 weeks after we completed the purchase! Could you please advise on how this restriction still applies or the Land Registry should be informed that the freehold purchase was done under Act 1967, therefore this not necessarily applies. We are at a desperate situation, we found a buyer for our house, but pulled out due to leasehold situation.
Many thanks for your advise in advance

I'm not too sure there is much we can advise on here as it is the sequence of events and the legal aspects that need to be unravelled and considered by your solicitor

You mention that it 'should be free from incumbrances' and you completed on that basis. But before your application was submitted a restriction gained priority and is now an issue for you/any purchaser

That is what your solicitor needs to investigate further to establish whether you had priority legally over the interest the restriction is protecting