Land Registry questions

BillGem

Hello ,
In 1985 the owner of a flat took out a loan on his flat ,and a charge was placed on the property .That person died in 2018, having suffered from dementia and leaving no details whatsoever about this  loan, other than periodic references to it ,in his diaries , the final entry being from June 1996 ,in which he expressed relief at having borrowed £10,000 from his sister (confirmed), in order to pay off the loan (£8000).To everyone's  knowledge , there was no further contact or reference to this loan after that date . 
It was only when the "estate" tried to sell the flat,in 2019, that the charge even came to light . The acting solicitors  ,then discovered that the loan company involved had self  liquidated in 2003, and that a subsidiary of Citigroup -- Citifinancial /Canada Square Operations -- today, had responsibility for any matters dealing with that  liquidated company .CitiFinancial  were happy to send in the necessary forms to the Land Registry to discharge the debt -- but the Land Registry did not accept their  paperwork : Citifinancial were unable to supply what they demanded and stated that they were unable to help further .
At this impasse,  the estate's solicitor approached the governments Bona Vacanti division, on the basis that it were accepted that the original loan company had gone into voluntary liquidation having no assets/debts outstanding -- then there was no loan outstanding on our property --  and that is where the situation  has been for over 3 months, now ,  and I have little hope of a positive outcome .

Any ideas how to get round this -- adding , that the sole beneficiary is an elderly sister who lives on a small nurse's pension ,and for whom the window during which she might have benefitted from this inheritance is rapidly diminishing ? .

Land_Registry

BillGem said:

Hello ,
In 1985 the owner of a flat took out a loan on his flat ,and a charge was placed on the property .That person died in 2018, having suffered from dementia and leaving no details whatsoever about this  loan, other than periodic references to it ,in his diaries , the final entry being from June 1996 ,in which he expressed relief at having borrowed £10,000 from his sister (confirmed), in order to pay off the loan (£8000).To everyone's  knowledge , there was no further contact or reference to this loan after that date . 
It was only when the "estate" tried to sell the flat,in 2019, that the charge even came to light . The acting solicitors  ,then discovered that the loan company involved had self  liquidated in 2003, and that a subsidiary of Citigroup -- Citifinancial /Canada Square Operations -- today, had responsibility for any matters dealing with that  liquidated company .CitiFinancial  were happy to send in the necessary forms to the Land Registry to discharge the debt -- but the Land Registry did not accept their  paperwork : Citifinancial were unable to supply what they demanded and stated that they were unable to help further .
At this impasse,  the estate's solicitor approached the governments Bona Vacanti division, on the basis that it were accepted that the original loan company had gone into voluntary liquidation having no assets/debts outstanding -- then there was no loan outstanding on our property --  and that is where the situation  has been for over 3 months, now ,  and I have little hope of a positive outcome .

Any ideas how to get round this -- adding , that the sole beneficiary is an elderly sister who lives on a small nurse's pension ,and for whom the window during which she might have benefitted from this inheritance is rapidly diminishing ? .

You’ll need to follow through with the relevant parties as you’ve described. The charge will have to be discharged and that will have been explained when we rejected the original request. Your solicitor is now pursuing the available legal option. 

If that doesn’t resolve it then it may take an application to a court to close the matter and discharge it - your legal advice should cover it for you 
Sorry but not a lot we can advise you on here as you are already pursuing the right legal course 

sendu

Ignoring the current circumstances around Covid19, how long does it normally take to go from completion on a property purchase to the property being registered in your name at land registry? I completed late Jan 2020 and still nothing.

Land_Registry

sendu said:

Ignoring the current circumstances around Covid19, how long does it normally take to go from completion on a property purchase to the property being registered in your name at land registry? I completed late Jan 2020 and still nothing.

If it was a registered title already then from completion to registration would probably take 5/6 weeks. But there are a lot of variables and stages still involved after completion so ‘normal’ will depend largely on the conveyancer and lenders involved to start with. Then us. 

Summy835

I am looking to purchase some land at the side of our property and been advised by the council that this is common land. We are only looking to purchase a small percentage of the land but unsure of how to start the process and who to speak with for this. The house was built in 2012 and we have check the title deeds and the land does not fall within our current boundary. 

flowermil

Hi,
We are in the process of purchasing a house that has a portion of the garden not included within the title deed.  This part of the garden can only be accessed by the house and has been in continuous use for over 12 years.  The vendor have applied for adverse possession but we have no idea how long this will take and the vendor's solicitor is not being forthcoming with any kind of timeline.  The application was submitted to Land Registry in mid Feb (we think) and I was wondering how long the application might take.

If we were to complete on the house without the application being completed, would the part of the land applied for, fall under the title plan for the house, and therefore be in our name, or would it be in the vendors name, causing that portion of the garden to still be owned by them?

TIA! 

Land_Registry

Summy835 said:

I am looking to purchase some land at the side of our property and been advised by the council that this is common land. We are only looking to purchase a small percentage of the land but unsure of how to start the process and who to speak with for this. The house was built in 2012 and we have check the title deeds and the land does not fall within our current boundary. 

If it’s common land then speak to the council re any purchase 

Land_Registry

flowermil said:

Hi,
We are in the process of purchasing a house that has a portion of the garden not included within the title deed.  This part of the garden can only be accessed by the house and has been in continuous use for over 12 years.  The vendor have applied for adverse possession but we have no idea how long this will take and the vendor's solicitor is not being forthcoming with any kind of timeline.  The application was submitted to Land Registry in mid Feb (we think) and I was wondering how long the application might take.

If we were to complete on the house without the application being completed, would the part of the land applied for, fall under the title plan for the house, and therefore be in our name, or would it be in the vendors name, causing that portion of the garden to still be owned by them?

TIA! 

It’s likely to be some time before it’s processed due to a backlog of work and Covid 19 impact 
Your conveyancer needs to manage your expectations re going ahead with the purchase or waiting but if you’ve got a mortgage then your lender probably won’t allow it. 

So speak to your conveyancer and seller re expediting the process
As to the registration decision that won’t be decided until the application is considered and very much depends on what’s been provided 

Homesweethome12

Hi,

I intend to sell my house post-lockdown, and on the title deeds there is a restriction that states:

"Restriction: No disposition of the registered estate (other than a charge) by the proprietor of the registered estate is to be registered without a certificate signed by (BLANK) Company Limited (Co. Regn. No.) of (BLANK ADDRESS) that the provisions of the Third Schedule Part 2 paragraph 6 of the Transfer dated 17 November 2011 referred to in the Charges Register have been complied with."

The company referred to in the restriction is a management company set up to maintain the common areas shared by each of the 5 properties within the gated mews. I've just been through the lengthy process of restoring the company as it was dissolved in 2016 without my knowledge.

My questions are as follows: should I seek to remove the restriction completely, and am I able to do so? Is there a reason Land Registry would want to keep the restriction on the title?

I did contact Land Registry directly with these questions but they weren't very forthcoming, so advice from a Land Registry rep on this forum would be very helpful.

Cheers.

Land_Registry

Homesweethome12 said:

Hi,

I intend to sell my house post-lockdown, and on the title deeds there is a restriction that states:

"Restriction: No disposition of the registered estate (other than a charge) by the proprietor of the registered estate is to be registered without a certificate signed by (BLANK) Company Limited (Co. Regn. No.) of (BLANK ADDRESS) that the provisions of the Third Schedule Part 2 paragraph 6 of the Transfer dated 17 November 2011 referred to in the Charges Register have been complied with."

The company referred to in the restriction is a management company set up to maintain the common areas shared by each of the 5 properties within the gated mews. I've just been through the lengthy process of restoring the company as it was dissolved in 2016 without my knowledge.

My questions are as follows: should I seek to remove the restriction completely, and am I able to do so? Is there a reason Land Registry would want to keep the restriction on the title?

I did contact Land Registry directly with these questions but they weren't very forthcoming, so advice from a Land Registry rep on this forum would be very helpful.

Cheers.

We can’t advise you on whether to keep the restriction in place or not, so I wouldn’t expect us to be very forthcoming on that point. 

If the Management Co don’t want to protect the terms of the Transfer then they can apply to cancel the restriction - see PG 19 section 3 

We don’t ‘want’ in this regard. We either register it in application. Or we cancel it if that’s what’s applied for. Cancellation will invariably rely on the Management Co agreeing so it’s what they want that counts 
Hope that helps