Restrictions in Land Registry blocking sale

Teea

Hi Everyone,
After an increasingly desperate 7 months of conveyancing, I need advice as my solicitors are unwilling to proceed with my purchase of a property as it has restrictions on the register. There are two restrictions >10 years old. The property I was hoping to buy is under joint ownership - there are two owners, only one of which was subject to the court judgments that created the restrictions.

The seller's solicitors applied to have the restrictions removed two weeks ago, but received a rejection from the Land Registry, stating that "Whereas the restriction may be one that would cancelled automatically upon registration of a transfer that satisfies the "overreaching" requirements of the Law of Property Act 1925, supported by suitable evidence of compliance with the terms of the restriction, the facts recited in support of your application do not demonstrate that the protected interest has come to an end in advance of such a transfer."

A Land Registry officer told me that the restrictions would be removed upon transfer of title, as long as the application to remove the notices/restrictions happens simultaneously with the request to transfer the title. In their previous application, the sellers had not yet requested a transfer of title. I am now confused about what to do as the buyer - how can those restrictions be removed, who can do it, is it necessary to do so before completion, and how can I find a solicitor familiar with this problem who can help me?

MovingForwards

Can you quote the restrictions so members can offer opinions and advice?

Teea

(24.11.2008) RESTRICTION: No disposition of the registered estate is to be registered without a certificate signed by the applicant for registration or his conveyancer that written notice of the disposition was given to Cabot Financial (UK) Limited at P.O. Box 250, West Malling, Kent ME19 4LT, being the person with the benefit of an interim charging order on the beneficial interest of Jenny Crawford made by the Lambeth County Court on 31 October 2008 (Court reference 8XE33202).

(01.02.2011) RESTRICTION: No disposition of the registered estate, other than a disposition by the proprietor of any registered charge registered before the entry of this restriction, is to be registered without a certificate signed by the applicant for registration or their conveyancer that written notice of the disposition was given to Mayor and Citizens of the London Borough of Lambeth at care of Incasso LLP, Trafalgar House, 29 Park Place, Leeds LS1 2SP, being the person with benefit of an Interim charging order on the beneficial interest of Jenny Crawford, made by the Lambeth County Court on 11 January 2011 (Court reference 1LB00043).

(… Recall that there are two owners who are joint owners: say Jenny Crawford, and Harry Simpson // I have changed the identities to protect the sellers - Teea)

xylophone

You are seeking to purchase a property from Adwaa and Umru?

Has the required notice of the disposition been given to

Cabot Financial (UK) Limited at P.O. Box 250, West Malling, Kent ME19 4LT,

and

Mayor and Citizens of the London Borough of Lambeth at care of Incasso LLP, Trafalgar House, 29 Park Place, Leeds LS1 2SP?

Teea

Yes I am seeking to buy the property from the joint owners.

I understand that the notice of disposition was given by the seller's solicitors as you described.

I can not be sure as I did not see the forms that they submitted to the Land Registry, I was only copied in on the rejection note from the Land Registry, which I quoted from in my first question at the top of this thread. Thanks for considering this conundrum for me.

xylophone

Has anything been heard from the parties with the benefit of the charging orders?

Teea

As I understand it, these are 'restrictions' and not 'charging orders'. Restrictions are different (?)

The restrictions quoted above are not repeated in the Charges Register, although there is one registered charge dated 9 March 2006. There are no further details, it's just:
"(21.03.2006) REGISTERED CHARGE dated 9 March 2006."

This charge predates the restrictions so is unlikely to be linked to them. I was going to ask the seller if he has heard from Cabot Financial and Lambeth Council... However on further reading now (thanks to xylophone's Stevens Bolton link) it seems that they don't have to respond, we merely have to notify them, which can be done even after completion.

D_M_E

Maybe this thread will help

xylophone

https://www.stevens-bolton.com/site/insights/articles/charging-orders-a-false-sense-of-security

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/action-your-creditor-can-take/charging-orders/

xylophone

Have you/your solicitor given notice of disposition?

steampowered

These entries presumably relate to outstanding debts which the sellers haven't paid.

It might be worth asking your EA to enquire with the seller as to whether the sellers can now clear these debts so as to enable the entries to be removed by consent.

The other way of doing it might be for arrangements to be made for the debts to be paid out of the sale proceeds.