Land registry Restriction Help Needed!!

SassySaver88

Hi guys

Its 4.30am here and cant sleep...
We are so close to exchange its unreal.
But a hiccup appeared yesterday we were not expecting...

Apparently there is a restriction on the property with a finance company....
Now our soictor said that she requested confirmation from the sellers solictor on 21st November that on completion the restriction would be paid and then dissolved, they would complete something called undertaking and the restriction would be removed.

That was 2 months ago.

Spoke to solictor yesterday who says that the sellers solictor is still waiting for a settlement figure...

We have to be out our house by 31st..

So my questions are...
How hard is it to get a restriction cleared in a house sale?
Where in the process is the asking for settlement figure?
And is there anything I can do because this is been outstanding for 2 months and I feel like we are getting no where.

Sellers are wanting to pay the debt on completion and our solictor says that she just needs confirmation from the finance company that thats ok
Surely thats just a letter?

Help needed...anyone

SassySaver88

Anyone...help at all?

Tiglet2

I am sure you will get more knowledgeable answers later on today!

So there is a charge on the property (not a mortgage) which needs to be removed from the title as it belongs to the vendor. Most likely it is a loan to a finance company and in order to remove it from the title, it needs to be paid in full and the chances are that the vendor wants to pay it from the sale proceeds. This is where the Undertaking comes in. An Undertaking is a "solicitors promise" to settle the account. Your solicitor will not exchange without either the charge being settled (and receipt of updated title deed to show the restriction having been removed) or he will want the Undertaking to show that the vendor's solicitors will settle this from the sale proceeds. Either way, there will be no exchange until then. Nothing you can do to expedite matters, it's not your debt.

SassySaver88

Thankyou Tiglet
Charge i doubt is not going to be settled untill we complete as they want to use the funds...however our solictor is aware of the undertaking and willing to do that but they want confirmation off the creditor that this is acceptable and creditors arent responding to enquiries...

rosyw

There's a very informative thread about restrictions in the Debt-Free Wannabe board,have a read it may help a lot!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1839539

SassySaver88

I've posted on there thankyou rosyw xx

SassySaver88

Had a phone call back from estate agent...
Saying that its not a problem with the restriction itself, the sellers solicitor is finding it difficult to find someone to correspond with at the creditors end.

Has anyone else ever had this??

silvercar

How hard is it to get a restriction cleared in a house sale?

Generally easy, but could be difficult if the company that put on the restriction no longer exists.

Where in the process is the asking for settlement figure?

Before exchange. You would expect sellers to have a general idea of the amount they owe on a property before they market it. Exact figure can't be calculated until a completion date is known, so settlement figures are generally requested just before exchange.

And is there anything I can do because this is been outstanding for 2 months and I feel like we are getting no where.

IF there were no hitches, this sort of thing would be sorted in 2 days not 2 months. Something is wrong. Either this is an excuse for something else or the seller doesn't have enough money from the sale to clear it or whoever placed the restriction is causing problems. If I was betting I would go with the seller didn't realise they would have to deal with this at the time of sale.

Sellers are wanting to pay the debt on completion and our solictor says that she just needs confirmation from the finance company that thats ok

That is standard practice and how mortgages are also cleared. It is for the seller's solicitor to deal with this. Sellers solicitor would require an undertaking that they will lift restriction on payment of XX. May all depend on how quickly the finance company operate.

davidmcn

Not necessarily anything sinister about this, I would think it more likely that it's just inefficiencies on the part of the sellers' lender and/or solicitors.

Lenders (especially the non-mainstream ones - don't know who this one is) are quite often useless at giving out redemption statements (after all, why should they care about customer service if you're closing your account?). Not unknown for them to say they need 5 working days, and when you complain a week later about not having received it, they insist you must have lost it and then have to wait another 5 working days for the replacement, etc etc.

SassySaver88

Saying that its not a problem with the restriction itself, the sellers solicitor is finding it difficult to find someone to correspond with at the creditors end.

What do you do when you cant get hold of a creditor for the past 2 months??

Richard_Webster

Seller's solicitor needs to try harder - make a complaint to the finance company and threaten them with the relevant ombudsman.

Obviously, the seller's solicitor cannot do anything until he gets the information as to the amount required to pay off the loan, because he can't be sure how much he will have to undertake to send and the worst case is that there will not be enough out of the sale proceeds to meet all the liabilities if there are other mortgages etc.