Unilateral notice?!

twink1108

We are hoping to exchange soon and have been told that there are unilateral notice entries on the title of our flat that we are selling. We’ve been told that land registry have been contacted to remove these notices and that it takes up to 15 days, however it isn’t usually an issue and exchange and completion can take place regardless. For some reason, our buyers solicitor is refusing to exchange until this is complete.

We’re unfortunately in a situation where we have a deadline for exchange on our purchase so we can’t wait the 15 days.

I was hoping someone might be able to please explain this to me in layman’s terms so that I can contact our agent who can pass on a message to our buyers and hopefully get them to change their mind on this!

This is pretty much all we are waiting for to exchange so it is really holding up the whole process :mad:

Comms69

twink1108 wrote: »

We are hoping to exchange soon and have been told that there are unilateral notice entries on the title of our flat that we are selling. We’ve been told that land registry have been contacted to remove these notices and that it takes up to 15 days, however it isn’t usually an issue and exchange and completion can take place regardless. For some reason, our buyers solicitor is refusing to exchange until this is complete.

We’re unfortunately in a situation where we have a deadline for exchange on our purchase so we can’t wait the 15 days.

I was hoping someone might be able to please explain this to me in layman’s terms so that I can contact our agent who can pass on a message to our buyers and hopefully get them to change their mind on this!

This is pretty much all we are waiting for to exchange so it is really holding up the whole process :mad:

A unilateral notice can be most commonly found in the charges register of the property if it is registered. This notice is a charge used to register any interest which a third party may have in a particular property or estate, and notify the other party of its existence. A third party to a property is defined as any person other than the owner. This may include banks, loan companies, credit cards and other private individuals.


Trust me on this, if the buyers solicitor is saying he wont exchange until this is done, he will not exchange. It's as simple as that.


The buyer would have to be stupid to go against legal advice, but even if they are stupid, the solicitor acts on behalf of the lender.


Your deadline may have to be passed, but frankly not a lot happens in 15 days that cant be undone or repaired.

Land_Registry

The 15 days you refer to us the notice period for our notifying the third party as mentioned by Comms69. We don't serve them until the application is considered so that may add some days to the timescale in mind

On a more positive note if the third party replies and says OK before the notice period is up then it can be shorter. You will appreciate though they may not of course

twink1108

Are there implications should we exchange before they are lifted?

twink1108

Are there any ways of hurrying this through or does it take however long it takes? We have a deadline with our mortgage offer of 1st December. The buyers want 2 weeks between exchange and completion. Even if it takes exactly 15 days, this takes us very close to our mortgage offer deadline.

Comms69

twink1108 wrote: »

Are there implications should we exchange before they are lifted?

Yes/no/maybe - depends on the details. But seems redundant, as I said the solicitor is clearly not going to exchange until it's done.

twink1108 wrote: »

Are there any ways of hurrying this through or does it take however long it takes? We have a deadline with our mortgage offer of 1st December. The buyers want 2 weeks between exchange and completion. Even if it takes exactly 15 days, this takes us very close to our mortgage offer deadline.

Not really, it's just part of the process. Something's are quick, some are not.

G_M

twink1108 wrote: »

.....For some reason, our buyers solicitor is refusing to exchange until this is complete.
he is doing his job properly and would be professionally negligent if he Exchanged before the Notice is removed.

This is why your buyer is using a solicitor for the Conveyancing - to ensure it is done properly.

Are you using a solicitor?

We’re unfortunately in a situation where we have a deadline for exchange on our purchase so we can’t wait the 15 days.
Then you will have to withdraw from your purchase. Or find the moneyy elsewhere - eg a bridging loan.

I was hoping someone might be able to please explain this to me in layman’s terms so that I can contact our agent who can pass on a message to our buyers and hopefully get them to change their mind on this!

If you are doing your own conveyancing, you should stop, since you clearly don't understand what's involved.

If you are using a solicitor, then he should explain to your seller's solicitor what the delay is, and that information will pass up the chain via the professionals. Who will all understand. And explain to their clients.

Your solicitor will not "pass on a message to [your] buyers and hopefully get them to change their mind " because your solicitor will know that the buyers' solicitor is doing what has to be done.

And the Estate Agent is not legally competant (hmmm... or competant at all?) and should not be involved in legal discussions about the conveyancing. He is likely to simply muddy the water with gobbledegook, whilst trying to put poiintless pressure on people so as to get his commission earlier.

twink1108

No we are not doing our own conveyancing and we have a solicitor. She has told me several times (as has the solicitor who we initially used for the conveyancing of our flat when we bought) that it is very unusual that exchange would not go ahead whilst the notices are being removed.

That's why I was hoping to find out the ways in which it could actually implicate the purchase because the buyers solicitors seem to have created unnecessary delays for the duration of the process - for example, they refused to raise ANY enquiries until the searches came back rather than raise enquiries on the management pack etc whilst waiting. The searches have taken 3 weeks to come back and when I finally persuaded our buyers to push their solicitor into raising enquiries, things came up which have taken a couple of weeks to deal with, so luckily they did send other enquiries when they did. They also encouraged their client (our buyers) to hold off of instructing them formally until they had their mortgage offer through, which again, caused a delay.

I am not sure if maybe they are trying to stall for some reason which is why I am asking. I know our buyers are renting, so it crossed my mind that perhaps they needed to give a certain amount of notice before they move out of their rented accommodation.

Comms69

twink1108 wrote: »

No we are not doing our own conveyancing and we have a solicitor. She has told me several times (as has the solicitor who we initially used for the conveyancing of our flat when we bought) that it is very unusual that exchange would not go ahead whilst the notices are being removed.

That's why I was hoping to find out the ways in which it could actually implicate the purchase because the buyers solicitors seem to have created unnecessary delays for the duration of the process - for example, they refused to raise ANY enquiries until the searches came back rather than raise enquiries on the management pack etc whilst waiting. - so they are ensuring their clients are paying for unnecessary work? sounds pretty reasonable to me. The searches have taken 3 weeks to come back and when I finally persuaded our buyers to push their solicitor into raising enquiries, things came up which have taken a couple of weeks to deal with, so luckily they did send other enquiries when they did. They also encouraged their client (our buyers) to hold off of instructing them formally until they had their mortgage offer through, which again, caused a delay. - again they sound thoroughly decent and looking after their clients interest.

I am not sure if maybe they are trying to stall for some reason which is why I am asking. I know our buyers are renting, so it crossed my mind that perhaps they needed to give a certain amount of notice before they move out of their rented accommodation.

It could be, but that really makes no difference now.