10 months in my house and still don’t have the deeds and the house is still unregistered

lauren341

I bought a house on the 9th July 2019, we knew the house was unregistered but was always reassured by our solicitor it wasn’t a problem and she could register the property. 10 months in with loads of chasing her and getting rather annoyed with her we still haven’t got anywhere and still don’t have a copy of our deeds nor is the house registered with the land registry. What would you recommend we do? We are at the end of our tether with it. Reading up online suggests it shouldn’t take longer than 3 months.

dimbo61

Well we have Covid19 problems and solicitors along with many other organisations on lockdown.
Do you have a mortgage ? on the property. If so the lender will have the deeds.
Maybe a nice email to your solicitor asking how she is and hoping ALL her family and friends are well and coping with the worse Pandemic to hit the world in 100 years.
Maybe contact the Land Registry direct yourself via email or phone on Monday.
Stay Safe 

xylophone

Well we have Covid19 problems and solicitors along with many other organisations on lockdown.

We've been on lockdown for under two months.

 I bought a house on the 9th July 2019, 

I am not surprised that he is getting concerned.

AdrianC

This is one to get the @Land_Registry rep involved in, so they can find out what's going on.

lauren341

dimbo61 said:

Well we have Covid19 problems and solicitors along with many other organisations on lockdown.
Do you have a mortgage ? on the property. If so the lender will have the deeds.
Maybe a nice email to your solicitor asking how she is and hoping ALL her family and friends are well and coping with the worse Pandemic to hit the world in 100 years.
Maybe contact the Land Registry direct yourself via email or phone on Monday.
Stay Safe 

Yeah unfortunately COVID doesn’t come into it, I know what’s going on is awful but the house was bought in July last year!! The solicitor has had many chances before covid to give me an update but I haven’t had anything back, we have emailed and called her with no response many times. I’ve only messaged once during covid and automatic response to say she isn’t working basically. I want to know what’s best to do when covid is all over and I inevitably get no response again from the solicitor. 

Land_Registry

Whilst we had a backlog of some types of work prior to Covid1 9 first registrations weren’t badly affected. 6-8 weeks was the average timescale then so from a July purchase I’d probably expect it to have been submitted within 4 weeks so registered say by October. 

That’s all based on the basic principle that it was all in order of course. 

Covid 19 has of course had a significant impact but that happened some 7/8 months after your purchase so shouldn’t have impacted as registration, if all in order, should have been completed before it hit. 

So your solicitor is the key here re what happened and when and if we’ve got it then what’s the title number and our case reference?

lauren341

Land_Registry said:

Whilst we had a backlog of some types of work prior to Covid1 9 first registrations weren’t badly affected. 6-8 weeks was the average timescale then so from a July purchase I’d probably expect it to have been submitted within 4 weeks so registered say by October. 

That’s all based on the basic principle that it was all in order of course. 

but that happened some 7/8 months after your purchase so shouldn’t have impacted as registration, if all in order, should have been completed before it hit. 

So your solicitor is the key here re what happened and when and if we’ve got it then what’s the title number and our case reference?

Interesting! See we don’t even have any case numbers or reference numbers. She literally wasn’t replying to us when we were chasing her. Will have to pop into her office when safe to do so and demand some information. I’m just worried as we’ve paid her money and she isn’t doing anything, it’s not difficult to keep us updated. (Obviously before COVID)

knightstyle

After this long I would be putting in a complaint to the solicitors boss.  You could try a SAR to the solicitor, that would show up what they had done, and when, towards registering.

greatcrested

knightstyle said:

After this long I would be putting in a complaint to the solicitors boss.  You could try a SAR to the solicitor, that would show up what they had done, and when, towards registering.

I would escalate this too. Look up the firm's complaints procedure (it will be specified amongst the paperwork you originally received) and follow it.

Land_Registry

lauren341 said:

Land_Registry said:

Whilst we had a backlog of some types of work prior to Covid1 9 first registrations weren’t badly affected. 6-8 weeks was the average timescale then so from a July purchase I’d probably expect it to have been submitted within 4 weeks so registered say by October. 

That’s all based on the basic principle that it was all in order of course. 

but that happened some 7/8 months after your purchase so shouldn’t have impacted as registration, if all in order, should have been completed before it hit. 

So your solicitor is the key here re what happened and when and if we’ve got it then what’s the title number and our case reference?

Interesting! See we don’t even have any case numbers or reference numbers. She literally wasn’t replying to us when we were chasing her. Will have to pop into her office when safe to do so and demand some information. I’m just worried as we’ve paid her money and she isn’t doing anything, it’s not difficult to keep us updated. (Obviously before COVID)

DM me the postal address and I’ll ask colleagues to see what’s on record at our end 

[Deleted User]

Make a complaint to the senior complaints partner at the firm. Failing to respond to you is a breach of the codes of conduct. Make sure you send the formal complaint in writing