Land Registry - removing deceased spouse from property deed?

joanars

Hello,

We are in the final stages of buying a house and one of the queries raised by our solicitors was for the house deed to be amended and the deceased spouse of the current owner to be removed from the deed.

Although this query was raised many,many weeks ago, the seller's solicitors only submitted this amendment to the Land Registry on Monday. My question is, roughly what is the timescale for removing spouse from property deed? I couldn't find any specific information.

I'm now getting worried because three weeks ago we've been served notice to evict our current apartment by 10th January and I'm afraid we will not complete by this date because the seller's solicitors have been absolute nightmare throughout the whole process. (the deed amendment is the final pending query before exchange)

Thanks in advance! :beer:

chunkytfg

joanars wrote: »

Hello,

We are in the final stages of buying a house and one of the queries raised by our solicitors was for the house deed to be amended and the deceased spouse of the current owner to be removed from the deed.

Although this query was raised many,many weeks ago, the seller's solicitors only submitted this amendment to the Land Registry on Monday. My question is, roughly what is the timescale for removing spouse from property deed? I couldn't find any specific information.

I'm now getting worried because three weeks ago we've been served notice to evict our current apartment by 10th January and I'm afraid we will not complete by this date because the seller's solicitors have been absolute nightmare throughout the whole process. (the deed amendment is the final pending query before exchange)

Thanks in advance! :beer:

Section 21 Notice or actual eviction via the courts following a Valid section 21 notice?

joanars

Its Section 21 notice, apologies, the landlord is selling the apartment.

We are privately renting and our landlord has been great to us during the 4 years we have lived in the apartment so we do not want to stay longer and ruin his plans for selling the property. He already has viewings booked for after this date.

He also gave us 2 months notice as opposite to 1 month as per our contract. Our solicitors said that 2 months is not unreasonable timeframe for completing the sale, but it's all down to the seller's solicitors to finalise the final query. We have done everything and signed the contract WEEKS AGO.

Thank you.

HampshireH

joanars wrote: »

Its Section 21 notice, apologies, the landlord is selling the apartment.

We are privately renting and our landlord has been great to us during the 4 years we have lived in the apartment so we do not want to stay longer and ruin his plans for selling the property. He already has viewings booked for after this date.

He also gave us 2 months notice as opposite to 1 month as per our contract. Our solicitors said that 2 months is not unreasonable timeframe for completing the sale, but it's all down to the seller's solicitors to finalise the final query. We have done everything and signed the contract WEEKS AGO.

Thank you.

Have an honest chat with the Landlord, Let them know the issue you are facing and ask if they would be happy for you to remain in the property beyond the S.21 date ( you can legally anyway but it with definately frustrate whatever relationship you may have with them). If you are willing to allow the viewings during occupancy & can evidence your planned purchase and the reason for the delay, they may be happy for you to stay a bit longer:)

They may not - and again you don't legally have to leave - it is just notice but it is likely to sour things somewhat

He is also legally obliged to give you 2 months notice on a S.21 (he hasn't done you a favour)

ThePants999

Let's be super clear on that: legally, he is obliged to give you two months' notice of his INTENTION to seek possession (that's what an S21 is), then actually seek possession, which is a court-based process that takes an indeterminate (but often significant) amount of time. You are under no obligation to leave until a court says so. And since you're buying a home, you hardly need a reference. Clear communication with the landlord is always nice, and finding a compromise that works for both of you would be great, but don't be TOO selfless - it will be a huge pain in the !!!! for you to move out before completing on your purchase, so don't feel you need to take that hit to make the landlord's life slightly easier.

ThePants999

On your original question - I think I'd be a bit annoyed at the solicitor, I'm very unconvinced that it was really necessary to go through a two-step process of first transferring it into the sole name of the current vendor, then transferring it to you. I'll wager the Land Registry would have been fine with a transfer from all current owners to you, solely authorised by the one vendor, together with a death certificate to prove that the other current owner is in no fit state to be signing a transfer form The standard timescale for the Land Registry to execute transfers is a LOT longer than the month you're looking for, I'm afraid, but solicitors can ask them to expedite specific cases where it's holding up a property transaction, so make sure that has happened or you'll be waiting months.

da_rule

Was there a transfer as ThePants999 is suggesting, or was it simply a case of submitting a death certificate and form DJP to the Land Registry?

ciderboy2009

I did a Form DJP for my mother when my father passed away (end of September). The amended title came back in about 3 weeks so, assuming that Christmas doesn't affect things too badly, you should be ok.

joanars

Hi All,

Thank you very much for all responses.
I'm not 100% what the full query states, but I know our solicitor requested for the name of the deceased spouse to be removed from the deed.

We spoke with our solicitor couple of weeks ago and they said the outstanding query takes 5 minutes to be submitted online.

Reading through your comments we might have to start making alternative plans as it seems less and less likely to complete before 10th January. It's so frustrating, we've been waiting since early August.

LandyAndy

joanars wrote: »

Hi All,

Thank you very much for all responses.
I'm not 100% what the full query states, but I know our solicitor requested for the name of the deceased spouse to be removed from the deed.

We spoke with our solicitor couple of weeks ago and they said the outstanding query takes 5 minutes to be submitted online.

Reading through your comments we might have to start making alternative plans as it seems less and less likely to complete before 10th January. It's so frustrating, we've been waiting since early August.

Reading through the comments should have made it clear to you that 10 January is not a date on which you need to do anything

joanars

Yes, we are aware, but we do want to complete and be out of the apartment by this date.

Anyway, we just chased the Estate Agent to see where things are but we couldn't get through.
After an hour their Operations Director who was our main point of contact rang us to say that he left a month ago due to company financial difficulties and he is confident the whole estate agency was shut down so that's why we can't get through!

So what is happening now?? We have already phoned the solicitors and expressed our concerns, they said this shouldn't be an issue??? :eek::eek::eek: