My Solicitor says she can't certify the deed to my lender???

Skytunnel31

Need a second opinion...

I'm about to lose out our dream house because my solicitor is refusing to certify the deeds to my lender over the sake of a 70 year old easement that likely has nothing to do with the property I'm looking to buy.  But no one can get hold of it because it'll take 6-8 weeks to get from the Land Registry Archives (made worse due to covid).

The land in question has already passed through at least 3 different hands (all with mortages) without any dispute or even reference to this easement.  So why would my solicitor being holding out on this one issue.

I will lose the house because vendor is unable to sign for their new build house until they get our signed contract.  And the builder is ready to put their new house back on the market if this is not sorted within the next week!  At which point the vendor has said they'd prefer to put their house back on the market since we are in the middle of a mini-housing boom and they'll propbably get a better price for it than I could afford.

Need advise ASAP on what to do!?

MovingForwards

What's the easement for?
Why do you say it's nothing to do with the land / home you are buying?

Skytunnel31

MovingForwards said:

What's the easement for?
Why do you say it's nothing to do with the land / home you are buying?

Thats what my solicitor wants to know.  All I've been told is its something to do with "benefit of the land"

csgohan4

can quote the relevant section on here so our wiser posters can have a look. 

MovingForwards

It has to be written somewhere otherwise the solicitors wouldn't have picked it up.

[Deleted User]

Solicitors want to look in to it as they hold liability for the transaction from the lender.   Lender can't repossess due to problems with the title then the solicitor is going to have a very large claim on their hands

davidmcn

Skytunnel31 said:

MovingForwards said:

What's the easement for?
Why do you say it's nothing to do with the land / home you are buying?

Thats what my solicitor wants to know.  All I've been told is its something to do with "benefit of the land"

If your solicitor isn't sure what it's about, why are you so sure that it's irrelevant? You'll need to give us more details about it if you want any useful advice from people here. If there's uncertainty about whether it affects the property then it might be possible to take out indemnity insurance (which is also often the quickest solution).

cooltt

davidmcn said:

Skytunnel31 said:

MovingForwards said:

What's the easement for?
Why do you say it's nothing to do with the land / home you are buying?

Thats what my solicitor wants to know.  All I've been told is its something to do with "benefit of the land"

If your solicitor isn't sure what it's about, why are you so sure that it's irrelevant? You'll need to give us more details about it if you want any useful advice from people here. If there's uncertainty about whether it affects the property then it might be possible to take out indemnity insurance (which is also often the quickest solution).

This ^^^^^ is the soloution to solicitors being ridiculous last minute but they never mention it.

If the property / land has been sold several times over the last 30/40 years it extreamly unlikely any easement on the deeds can be effectively enforced.

Tell your solicitor to grow up and ask them to arrange an indemnity policy asap.

Skytunnel31

cooltt said:

davidmcn said:

Skytunnel31 said:

MovingForwards said:

What's the easement for?
Why do you say it's nothing to do with the land / home you are buying?

Thats what my solicitor wants to know.  All I've been told is its something to do with "benefit of the land"

If your solicitor isn't sure what it's about, why are you so sure that it's irrelevant? You'll need to give us more details about it if you want any useful advice from people here. If there's uncertainty about whether it affects the property then it might be possible to take out indemnity insurance (which is also often the quickest solution).

This ^^^^^ is the soloution to solicitors being ridiculous last minute but they never mention it.

If the property / land has been sold several times over the last 30/40 years it extreamly unlikely any easement on the deeds can be effectively enforced.

Tell your solicitor to grow up and ask them to arrange an indemnity policy asap.

Thanks!  This is what the solicitor has now only told me!  Thats what where going to try, hope that I'll have better news tommorrow!

Thrugelmir

Your solicitor works for the lender as well as yourself. Quite rightly they have no wish to expose themselves to any risk.
But no one can get hold of it because it'll take 6-8 weeks to get from the Land Registry Archives
So it's available. Just a question of waiting. 

Covid is impacting many organisations. Not an excuse to cut corners though.