Lan Registry RX3/RX4 Help!

mbramwell

Hey!
Hoping the Land Registry person picks this up... If they are still a thing! But any advice at all will be appreciated!

We're in the middle of buying a house. With coronavirus and everything it's taken around 9 months so far. We've got down to the last thing which is a restriction on the title. The land the property is on was originally part of around 20 acres. 10 were sold to the current owners of the property, and they are selling us the property and a small amount of the 10 acres and retaining the rest.
When they originally bought the 10 acres the original owner put a restriction on the title preventing sale of any of the land without either the consent of the title holder, or a certificate of compliance that points 5 and 7 have been complied with. 

We've been given a certificate of compliance, but our solicitor is concerned that as one of the original title holders is now deceased, and the other is in a care home, it could cause us problems in future. The sellers solicitor has confirmed that they intend to remove the restriction from our title as the small amount of the 10 acres that we will own makes up a small amount of the original 10 acres. I'm just worried that with the original title owners being difficult to contact, what will happen in this situation?
Hope all that makes sense! Thanks in advance.

davidmcn

mbramwell said:

I'm just worried that with the original title owners being difficult to contact, what will happen in this situation?

There would be a delay until whoever then has the title is contactable and gets around to dealing with it. Which might be "never", if they've got discretion about whether to grant consent. I'm sure your solicitor can explain further if you don't fully understand what they've already told you.

mbramwell

Thanks for getting back! By "never", do you mean as in we may never manage to get it removed. The concern mainly comes from the fact that the title holders are either deceased or in a care home! We got the certificate of compliance fairly quickly so that was good, but if we proceed with the restriction in place and the other title holder unfortunately passes away, would that make our property essentially unsellable as we would never be able to get a certificate of compliance?

jimbog

Try posting here OP
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5685941/land-registry-questions/p260

greatcrested

mbramwell said:

....The sellers solicitor has confirmed that they intend to remove the restriction from our title ...

Providing the seller's solicitor gives your solicitor a "solicitor's undertaking" to remove the resriction, you can rely on that.

How they do that is their problem. But a solicitor who reneged on such an undertaking would be in serious professional trouble!

mbramwell

jimbog said:

Try posting here OP
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5685941/land-registry-questions/p260

Amazing thanks for pointing me to this!

mbramwell

greatcrested said:

mbramwell said:

....The sellers solicitor has confirmed that they intend to remove the restriction from our title ...

Providing the seller's solicitor gives your solicitor a "solicitor's undertaking" to remove the resriction, you can rely on that.

How they do that is their problem. But a solicitor who reneged on such an undertaking would be in serious professional trouble!

This sounds promising.... I'll explore that with my solicitor! Thanks for this suggestion, hopefully it gives us a way forward. Our mortgage expires at the end of December so I worry about having to wait for completion as it seems like this could take a while.. a solicitors undertaking sounds like it might just sort it.