Land Registry Complaint - 21 weeks delays for title registration - Risk of bankruptcy

TTjones89

RE: Potential bankruptcy due to unable to get loan on property without updated title

To whom may concern,

I am writing to raise a complaint regarding the 21 weeks it has taken to update the title deeds of a property I purchased 5th March 2020. Whilst I acknowledge that there will have been delays caused by the virus, it is beyond comprehendible that it will have taken this long when you take into the fact that the relevant department is government-funded and thus will have not faced the need for huge if any furloughing of staff, transaction over the last 3 months have frozen therefore your workload will have shrunk considerably allowing any backlog created by working from home to be caught up on.

 This issue has been further exacerbated by the pandemic and my need to take out a loan against this property to avoid my business and family being plunged into bankruptcy! The loan provider understandably has refused to approve the funds until the title has been updated to reflect that we are the new owners along with the new lender.

 If this delay goes on much longer and I do in fact go bankrupt and risk being repossessed, I will be pursuing your department for all the financial losses my and my family incur. I have engaged solicitors already who will advise me on the next steps if this issue remains unresolved.

Best regards,

Tex Jones

tom9980

@Land_Registry can maybe help.

AdrianC

One for @Land_Registry

But, no, I wouldn't say it was "beyond comprehendible" at all. I'm actually relatively unsurprised.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-impact-on-hm-land-registrys-services

davidmcn

The lender doesn't need to wait until the Land Registry has completed registration, their solicitors should be able to form a view on whether the application is competent. If they're not willing to do that then you may wish to complain to them instead. No, the Land Registry will not be liable for any losses you suffer.

Land_Registry

I’m so I’m sorry to read of your difficulties and frustrations
Happy to take a look if you share your title number? 

However I imagine you/your conveyancer have been in direct contact with us already so you may prefer to use that channel? 

Do you know if a request to expedite it has been submitted also?  

In very general terms only 

We had a backlog of certain types of work before covid impacted
Whilst we have not furloughed staff and whilst intakes dropped April they have begun to grow since and are back to a level of about 75% of pre Covid numbers. But as I said we already had a backlog of certain types of application so workloads have not reduced. 

The backlog I mention has existed for some time. Hence we have an expedite process for urgent applications where there’s a linked transaction or specific hardship. 

I’m hoping you can confirm the details and also that such a request has been submitted .

Slithery

Have you expedited the application? This should bring the wait time before processing  down to a lot less than 21 weeks....

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-impact-on-hm-land-registrys-services#expedite-an-application