Land Registry questions

Land_Registry

Moonflower1978 said:

Hi
Question please for Land registry 

 Purchasing a shared ownership house , from a housing association ( was a vacant rent to buy property which the HA are now selling as a shared ownership, no chain)

Memorandum of sale 8/12/21
Mortgage offer 29/12/21
Searches back 8/2/21

Enquiries have been very slow since February. 
Finally most have been answered, deposit paid, proposed completion date 25th May so should be exchanging next week on 18th... but today the housing association's solicitors have said there errors on the Land Registry title and we can't exchange until these are resolved. Should this not have been spotted sooner? Feel totally deflated as we are so near exchange, its been nearly 6 months in this whole process, solicitors initially said we would be exchanging end of February. I've had to continually chase for any updates and feel fobbed off as the housing group just keep saying their solicitor has sent replies to enquiries but my solicitor keeps saying they are still outstanding. Thought we we almost there as they said only one enquiry outstanding and to discuss a completion date with my solicitor,  then they now say about these land registry errors so close to the finish line. Mortgage offer expires next month.

 Any idea how long it takes to correct any errors on the title? My solicitor has not got back to me to advise. 

Only the solicitors can answer that re not spotting the suggested errors sooner. And how long it takes depends on what the suggested errors are and what’s needed to correct them 

Land_Registry

Monkeyface41 said:

Hi there I have a question for Land Registry please. We are buying a property currently which is in probate. We have been told by the sellers that once probate is granted, they need to transfer the deeds from the executors to the trustees before we can exchange contracts. I am having difficult getting information about timescales for this and getting different answers from my solicitors and theirs, so hoping the Land Registry representative here can give me more accurate information.

1 The transfer of deeds will cause further delay to a purchase that is already protracted and which may be at risk of collapse in the event of additional delays, can the application for the transfer be expedited in these circumstances?

2 If the application is expedited, what is the approximate expected timescale between the application being sent and the transfer of deeds being completed?

3 If the application can't be expedited, what approximate timescales are we looking at in that scenario.

Help hugely appreciated, many thanks for taking the time.

1. Yes. They request that after it’s been submitted
2. Generally 2 weeks or less from approval of expedition - it’s usually a matter of days 
3. If it’s not expedited then 4+ months generally 

GemmaD32

Hi,

I posted a question a few weeks ago about a property I'm attempting to buy with a separate title for part of the rear garden (acquired from the council around 50 years after the property was built) which was not transferred when the house was sold in 2004. There have been 2 subsequent sales of the property and the garden is still registered to the person who owned the property from 1999 to 2004. At present this is looking like it will cause the purchase to fall through as our mortgage company have already down-valued after a survey and are unlikely to accept the purchase without the title to the garden.

Enquiries from the land registry now show that applications to transfer title for the main plot and the extra land were made - but only one fee was paid and this is the reason the garden got stuck to the old owner. Apparently the papers were filed by a personal representative, so at this point it is suspected the owner may be deceased. Given the clear intent to sell the garden as well as the house has now been discovered, is it likely that LR will be able to help us? We have until the 30th of May before our mortgage offer expires (and a further 2 weeks' grace period to complete)

Could this be expedited if not already? Our purchase is connected to an onward purchase of a vacant property, which in turn is necessary to fund that owner's move to an assisted living building.

Land_Registry

GemmaD32 said:

Hi,

I posted a question a few weeks ago about a property I'm attempting to buy with a separate title for part of the rear garden (acquired from the council around 50 years after the property was built) which was not transferred when the house was sold in 2004. There have been 2 subsequent sales of the property and the garden is still registered to the person who owned the property from 1999 to 2004. At present this is looking like it will cause the purchase to fall through as our mortgage company have already down-valued after a survey and are unlikely to accept the purchase without the title to the garden.

Enquiries from the land registry now show that applications to transfer title for the main plot and the extra land were made - but only one fee was paid and this is the reason the garden got stuck to the old owner. Apparently the papers were filed by a personal representative, so at this point it is suspected the owner may be deceased. Given the clear intent to sell the garden as well as the house has now been discovered, is it likely that LR will be able to help us? We have until the 30th of May before our mortgage offer expires (and a further 2 weeks' grace period to complete)

Could this be expedited if not already? Our purchase is connected to an onward purchase of a vacant property, which in turn is necessary to fund that owner's move to an assisted living building.

The fee aspect would not be relevant in my experience. It’s what’s actually applied for and if the Transfer was of both titles instead of just one that would impact - I make that as a very general comment but would be very surprised if we’d given the answer you have shared. 

Expedition can always be requested and if approved it will help speed matters. What it doesn’t do is waive the registration requirements and it reads as if they are the issue here re who can now transfer the legal ownership. The fee and speed points are very unlikely to solve it sadly and ‘clear intent’ is never sufficient where a legal deed (transfer) is required 

woodpeckerx

Land_Registry said:

woodpeckerx said:

Hi,

Question for Land Registry.

Could you advise roughly how long an expedited first registration is currently taking and would the timescale be longer if part of the deeds are missing?

Thanks.

Expedition reduces the initial wait time to generally under 2 weeks. That’s wait time from request approval to a caseworker considering the actual application. 

If the deeds are lost then that doesn’t usually affect timescales. What does is the application not being in order 

Thanks, what would be the approx total timescale for an expedited registration from start to finish?

GemmaD32

Land_Registry said:

GemmaD32 said:

Hi,

I posted a question a few weeks ago about a property I'm attempting to buy with a separate title for part of the rear garden (acquired from the council around 50 years after the property was built) which was not transferred when the house was sold in 2004. There have been 2 subsequent sales of the property and the garden is still registered to the person who owned the property from 1999 to 2004. At present this is looking like it will cause the purchase to fall through as our mortgage company have already down-valued after a survey and are unlikely to accept the purchase without the title to the garden.

Enquiries from the land registry now show that applications to transfer title for the main plot and the extra land were made - but only one fee was paid and this is the reason the garden got stuck to the old owner. Apparently the papers were filed by a personal representative, so at this point it is suspected the owner may be deceased. Given the clear intent to sell the garden as well as the house has now been discovered, is it likely that LR will be able to help us? We have until the 30th of May before our mortgage offer expires (and a further 2 weeks' grace period to complete)

Could this be expedited if not already? Our purchase is connected to an onward purchase of a vacant property, which in turn is necessary to fund that owner's move to an assisted living building.

The fee aspect would not be relevant in my experience. It’s what’s actually applied for and if the Transfer was of both titles instead of just one that would impact - I make that as a very general comment but would be very surprised if we’d given the answer you have shared. 

Expedition can always be requested and if approved it will help speed matters. What it doesn’t do is waive the registration requirements and it reads as if they are the issue here re who can now transfer the legal ownership. The fee and speed points are very unlikely to solve it sadly and ‘clear intent’ is never sufficient where a legal deed (transfer) is required 

Thank you, if I note the titles involved (TY360826, TY91115) might you be able to share any details of what might be happening? The communication from our vendor's solicitor has been poor at best, so we may be misinterpreting their feedback.

Noneforit999

Land_Registry said:

Noneforit999 said:

HI

If my wife and her sister inherited their granparents house at 50% each via the wills, probate has already been granted.

To confirm, the executor (i.e. their Dad) would need to fill out the following forms

AS1
AP1
ID1

Would they need three of the above forms per sister or just one?

Thanks

One AS1 and AP1. Plus ID1s for each sister

Would each sister need the ID1 if they are named specifically on the grant of probate document? 

Land_Registry

woodpeckerx said:

Land_Registry said:

woodpeckerx said:

Hi,

Question for Land Registry.

Could you advise roughly how long an expedited first registration is currently taking and would the timescale be longer if part of the deeds are missing?

Thanks.

Expedition reduces the initial wait time to generally under 2 weeks. That’s wait time from request approval to a caseworker considering the actual application. 

If the deeds are lost then that doesn’t usually affect timescales. What does is the application not being in order 

Thanks, what would be the approx total timescale for an expedited registration from start to finish?

If it’s in order when a caseworker processes it then a few hours 

Land_Registry

GemmaD32 said:

Land_Registry said:

GemmaD32 said:

Hi,

I posted a question a few weeks ago about a property I'm attempting to buy with a separate title for part of the rear garden (acquired from the council around 50 years after the property was built) which was not transferred when the house was sold in 2004. There have been 2 subsequent sales of the property and the garden is still registered to the person who owned the property from 1999 to 2004. At present this is looking like it will cause the purchase to fall through as our mortgage company have already down-valued after a survey and are unlikely to accept the purchase without the title to the garden.

Enquiries from the land registry now show that applications to transfer title for the main plot and the extra land were made - but only one fee was paid and this is the reason the garden got stuck to the old owner. Apparently the papers were filed by a personal representative, so at this point it is suspected the owner may be deceased. Given the clear intent to sell the garden as well as the house has now been discovered, is it likely that LR will be able to help us? We have until the 30th of May before our mortgage offer expires (and a further 2 weeks' grace period to complete)

Could this be expedited if not already? Our purchase is connected to an onward purchase of a vacant property, which in turn is necessary to fund that owner's move to an assisted living building.

The fee aspect would not be relevant in my experience. It’s what’s actually applied for and if the Transfer was of both titles instead of just one that would impact - I make that as a very general comment but would be very surprised if we’d given the answer you have shared. 

Expedition can always be requested and if approved it will help speed matters. What it doesn’t do is waive the registration requirements and it reads as if they are the issue here re who can now transfer the legal ownership. The fee and speed points are very unlikely to solve it sadly and ‘clear intent’ is never sufficient where a legal deed (transfer) is required 

Thank you, if I note the titles involved (TY360826, TY91115) might you be able to share any details of what might be happening? The communication from our vendor's solicitor has been poor at best, so we may be misinterpreting their feedback.

The information you have been given is accurate although undue emphasis has been added to the fee element mentioned. The real point made is that whilst amalgamation if the 2 titles was requested back in 2000 the request was refused. 

Thereafter the owner had 2 registered titles to deal with but unfortunately that was missed when the property was sold/bought thereafter. 

The solicitor made an enquiry and has been advised to make an application to amend the title. We can’t take a view and just amend it as suggested so next step is a formal application. 

In my experience we invariably require a transfer (legal deed) to achieve the change now needed and I would generally advise trying to trace the needed party and getting them to transfer the title. 

But the ball is in the solicitor’s court here as only they know what efforts have been made to trace the person(s) and/or whether they think there’s enough legal evidence to make us to make the change and the formal application as advised 

Land_Registry

Noneforit999 said:

Land_Registry said:

Noneforit999 said:

HI

If my wife and her sister inherited their granparents house at 50% each via the wills, probate has already been granted.

To confirm, the executor (i.e. their Dad) would need to fill out the following forms

AS1
AP1
ID1

Would they need three of the above forms per sister or just one?

Thanks

One AS1 and AP1. Plus ID1s for each sister

Would each sister need the ID1 if they are named specifically on the grant of probate document? 

No but you said their Dad was the executor 
The executor (personal representative) doesn’t need identity verification when submitting the application