Land Registry questions

Land_Registry

Ethelbert20 said:

Hi, My mum has owned the house she lives in for nearly 60 years and it's not registered. We would like to register it so we can get any alerts on the property. Can we do this ourselves, or is it best to get a conveyancer to do it.
If we can do it ourselves, do we need to send the original deeds, or will copies be ok?

You don’t have to use a conveyancer but we recommend you do 
Our online guidance explains what’s required including the original deeds if you submit it 
https://www.gov.uk/registering-land-or-property-with-land-registry/register-for-the-first-time

ChickenSandwichK

Does anyone know what the turnaround time is from request to receiving an original lease copy from land registry? I am 5 months into buying a leasehold flat where the seller has suddenly "discovered" they do not have the original lease from 1938! Many thanks.

Land_Registry

ChickenSandwichK said:

Does anyone know what the turnaround time is from request to receiving an original lease copy from land registry? I am 5 months into buying a leasehold flat where the seller has suddenly "discovered" they do not have the original lease from 1938! Many thanks.

A few days to process once received and the solicitor normally applies using their business e-services 

EyesOnThePrize

Hi there Land Registry rep. 

Possibly bit of a niche question but I was wondering if you could help. We are in the process of selling our maisonette. It's the ground floor of a former house with one upstairs neighbour. We each have a lease for our respective flats and own the freehold for the entire property jointly. 

We will therefore need our upstairs neighbour to sign documentation authorising the transfer of the freehold from ourselves and him to him and our buyer. He is fine with this. 

We understand that an ID1 (using an ID5 in place of part B due to Covid) is necessary to verify our neighbour's identity as he doesn't have his own lawyers given that the net effect for him is nil (i.e. he will continue to own his flat and the freehold jointly with his downstairs neighbour). 

Bizarrely, our lawyers have now told us they in fact only employ two conveyancing solicitors (I believe there is another lawyer but they do not practice in real estate). One of their two solicitors is advising on our sale, the other is off work indefinitely. The other fee earners are conveyancers but none of them are chartered/registered with recognised bodies. 

Is it possible for our lawyer, ie the lawyer acting on the sale, to also perform the ID1 for our upstairs neighbour? I personally cannot see how this presents a conflict of interests as there is no legal advice being provided and it is simply a verification exercise confirming that he is who he says he is. Our lawyers do not seem to know the answer to this question, presumably because they have not encountered this issue before as the other conveyancing lawyer has not previously been on long term absence. 

If this is possible, is there any written Land Registry guidance on the matter I can point my solicitor towards (or a number they might ring to seek advice as practitioners) as this is proving to be a rather ridiculous last minute obstacle on our sale. I have checked practice guides 67 and 67A but understandably these don't seem to go into this level of minutiae. 

Many thanks for any help you can provide. 

Singlespeeder

Hi Land Registry,
We're a way into buying (though not too far not to be able to pull out) a 1852 house that has couple of 'easements'. 
1) a private Right of Way, wheelbarrow access essential, pass and repass but not linger, through our side gate and across the back of our house.  Basically the attached neighbour doesn't have any other access to the rear of their house.
2) we 'own' an unused privy attached to the back of their house and a RoW to use it.
We're sort of ok with them.
We'll never use the privy and would be quite happy for them to 'have it back'.
The RoW across our house will be ok IF they're not traipsing back and forth through our family BBQ's etc. ie as long as they only use it occasionally and with respect.
The RoW has been altered a few times and we've multiple Deeds of Variation showing this. Presumably the latest  one, dated 2002 supersedes the earlier ones? The 2002 one doesn't mention the privy so we're not entirely sure what the detail is of this.
It now transpires the house isn't registered with the LR so that needs to be done too.
Are we likely buying a millstone round our necks and should back out of the purchase, or should this all likely be clarified and cleared up without too much hassle?
We're perfectly happy to work with the neighbours to find a solution.

Land_Registry

EyesOnThePrize said:

Hi there Land Registry rep. 
Possibly bit of a niche question but I was wondering if you could help. We are in the process of selling our maisonette. It's the ground floor of a former house with one upstairs neighbour. We each have a lease for our respective flats and own the freehold for the entire property jointly. 
We will therefore need our upstairs neighbour to sign documentation authorising the transfer of the freehold from ourselves and him to him and our buyer. He is fine with this. 

We understand that an ID1 (using an ID5 in place of part B due to Covid) is necessary to verify our neighbour's identity as he doesn't have his own lawyers given that the net effect for him is nil (i.e. he will continue to own his flat and the freehold jointly with his downstairs neighbour). 

Bizarrely, our lawyers have now told us they in fact only employ two conveyancing solicitors (I believe there is another lawyer but they do not practice in real estate). One of their two solicitors is advising on our sale, the other is off work indefinitely. The other fee earners are conveyancers but none of them are chartered/registered with recognised bodies. 

Is it possible for our lawyer, ie the lawyer acting on the sale, to also perform the ID1 for our upstairs neighbour? I personally cannot see how this presents a conflict of interests as there is no legal advice being provided and it is simply a verification exercise confirming that he is who he says he is. Our lawyers do not seem to know the answer to this question, presumably because they have not encountered this issue before as the other conveyancing lawyer has not previously been on long term absence. 

If this is possible, is there any written Land Registry guidance on the matter I can point my solicitor towards (or a number they might ring to seek advice as practitioners) as this is proving to be a rather ridiculous last minute obstacle on our sale. I have checked practice guides 67 and 67A but understandably these don't seem to go into this level of minutiae. 

Many thanks for any help you can provide. 

Our Practice Guides 67 and 67A cover the identity requirements so the conveyancer needs to refer to those 
If they have a ‘conflict’ then that will arise from their own rules/regulations and not ours. 

In my experience those relate to legal representation. That’s not standalone identity verification as your neighbour, could in normal times, simply contact them to complete that singular task. 

I’d suggest referring them to the application form AP1 and panel 13 (2) - if they are not acting for your neighbour then they’d complete that panel and confirm as appropriate. 

Land_Registry

Singlespeeder said:

Hi Land Registry,
We're a way into buying (though not too far not to be able to pull out) a 1852 house that has couple of 'easements'. 
1) a private Right of Way, wheelbarrow access essential, pass and repass but not linger, through our side gate and across the back of our house.  Basically the attached neighbour doesn't have any other access to the rear of their house.
2) we 'own' an unused privy attached to the back of their house and a RoW to use it.
We're sort of ok with them.
We'll never use the privy and would be quite happy for them to 'have it back'.
The RoW across our house will be ok IF they're not traipsing back and forth through our family BBQ's etc. ie as long as they only use it occasionally and with respect.
The RoW has been altered a few times and we've multiple Deeds of Variation showing this. Presumably the latest  one, dated 2002 supersedes the earlier ones? The 2002 one doesn't mention the privy so we're not entirely sure what the detail is of this.
It now transpires the house isn't registered with the LR so that needs to be done too.
Are we likely buying a millstone round our necks and should back out of the purchase, or should this all likely be clarified and cleared up without too much hassle?
We're perfectly happy to work with the neighbours to find a solution.

It’s not something we can guide you on as very much a personal view you need from others on the forum. 

From a purely registration perspective your concerns are valid . You’d need to read and understand the deed(s) mentioned to understand the order of events/any impact. They’d be read as a collective unless the last one basically tore up what had gone before and was the replacement for all, seems unlikely. 

As far as family bbqs and the right of access are concerned that is a very valid concern based solely on the issue often being the basis of such posts. Nobody posts to say how brilliantly such things work though. 

I suspect the deeds you refer to will offer some insight into how the openers/neighbours have viewed matters over the years and tried to change things. But it might be prudent to look at it slightly differently, namely is there another way to grant access for the reason they need it and if so something which can be explored with the current neighbour to a point where they agree and are legally bound into such a change? 

Personally I’d be having that chat with my solicitor as they’ll understand the legal nuances involved and can also piece the jigsaw of deeds/changes made to date together - they’d be doing the latter anyway. And IF there was an alternative you might have expected it to have been used by now?  

Lawhill7

Hi 
Myself and my partner are in the process of buying a house together. Both of us have chosen to re-mortgage our existing homes to purchase our house together. My partner made an application to the Land Registry in end September/early October to change the title deeds on his existing house to remove his sister from the deeds which they own together-with her consent and signed all relevant forms and have paid. This application has taken 5 months and we're now at risk of our mortgage offer expiring in less than a week. Has anyone ever known the Land Registry take this long to remove a name on the title deeds? We are getting no where with our solicitors or communicating with the land registry. Thank you. #landregistry #solicitors

Haircut15

Land registry question:
Buying a property with a restrictive covernment in favour of a management company.  Management company dissolved 10 yrs ago.  Crown have no interest in the road or the property.  Verbally advised that restriction will be disapplied  for the purpose of buying the property. Is it worth putting in an Rx3 once we own the property to have restriction permanently removed.  The road still remains unadopted.

Slithery

Lawhill7 said:

Has anyone ever known the Land Registry take this long to remove a name on the title deeds?

Perfectly normal.

Has your solicitor expedited the application with LR so that they know it's urgent?