Land Registry - Solicitors can't agree on removal of restriction process

LondonProperty

Hello,

Hoping Land Registry representative can help. I am buying a leasehod flat that has the following restriction on title:

"RESTRICTION: No disposition by the proprietors of the

registered estate is to be registered unless one or more of them makes a statutory declaration or statement of truth, or their conveyancer

gives a certificate, that the disposition is in accordance with a Declaration of Trust dated 21 February 2017 made between (1) person A (2) company B LLP or some variation

thereof referred to in the declaration, statement or certificate."

Problem is that my solicitors are requesting seller's solicitors to provide their undertaking to hand over an executed rx3/4 and a compliance certificate in respect of this restriction on completion however sellers' solicitors is adamant that they will only provide a compliance certificate and that this should be enough to get the restriction removed on completion.

I am at loss on what exactly the process is and how to get the seller/seller solicitors to help move this along. 

Can you clarify please:
1. What are the forms/documents needed and who should be responsible for it?
2. Do all the forms need to be processed prior to completion and if so, typically how long would this take?

Any guidance much appreciated.

Thank you

Jumblebumble

LondonProperty said:

Hello,

Hoping Land Registry representative can help. I am buying a leasehod flat that has the following restriction on title:

"RESTRICTION: No disposition by the proprietors of the

registered estate is to be registered unless one or more of them makes a statutory declaration or statement of truth, or their conveyancer

gives a certificate, that the disposition is in accordance with a Declaration of Trust dated 21 February 2017 made between (1) person A (2) company B LLP or some variation

thereof referred to in the declaration, statement or certificate."

Problem is that my solicitors are requesting seller's solicitors to provide their undertaking to hand over an executed rx3/4 and a compliance certificate in respect of this restriction on completion however sellers' solicitors is adamant that they will only provide a compliance certificate and that this should be enough to get the restriction removed on completion.

I am at loss on what exactly the process is and how to get the seller/seller solicitors to help move this along. 

Can you clarify please:
1. What are the forms/documents needed and who should be responsible for it?
2. Do all the forms need to be processed prior to completion and if so, typically how long would this take?

Any guidance much appreciated.

Thank you

Pay good attention to your solicitor's advice and ignore what the vendor's solicitor says as it is not their business to tell you what is or is not required
Instruct the vendor to tell their solicitor to behave or you will pull out
Trying to tell your solicitor  how to do their job is not a good idea

princeofpounds

Well, I'm no conveyancer but if you have a 'compliance certificate' (I assume this is the declaration/statement required in the restriction) then you know that the conveyance can happen without being challenged by the beneficiary of that restriction.

However, without the restriction being cancelled/withdrawn with an RX3/4, it would still continue to apply to future dispositions as far as I'm aware, and whilst I don't know the specifics of the arrangement, I doubt you would want that. What grounds would you actually have to cancel it if the counterparties do not agree?

Why don't you ask your conveyancer for a brief further explanation?

LondonProperty

Thank you both for your answers. My intent here is just to understand a little more about this and by no means I will go against what my solicitors are recommending. I trust them and they have done an amazing job so far. To be honest I just want a layman's explanation to it all. While not my first buying process this time it feels a lot more daunting.

My solicitors have been asking for this for a while from the other side and have explained to me it is needed, I just want to understand a little more on why.

Tiglet2

"RESTRICTION: No disposition by the proprietors of the

registered estate is to be registered unless one or more of them makes a statutory declaration or statement of truth, or their conveyancer

gives a certificate, that the disposition is in accordance with a Declaration of Trust dated 21 February 2017 made between (1) person A (2) company B LLP or some variation

thereof referred to in the declaration, statement or certificate."

I'm not a solicitor, but my thoughts are that the property is owned by Tenants in Common who have a Joint Proprietor Restriction noted on the title because they have drawn up a Declaration of Trust setting out the wishes of the proprietors.  That could be, for example, the percentages of ownership or one of the proprietors has died and the property needs to be sold in accordance with the Will. 

Now the property is being sold, it is necessary to cancel/remove the Joint Proprietor Restriction.  The seller's have to provide a Statutory Declaration/Statement of Truth signed by the beneficiaries/trustees confirming their agreement to the removal of the restriction, which they've agreed to do according to your OP.   

Either solicitor could submit the RX3/RX4 form to HM Land Registry, but usually it would be completed by the solicitor acting for the beneficiary, i.e. the seller.   The Stat Dec/SoT and RX3/4 forms are submitted to HM Land Registry after completion when your solicitor applies to change the title register to your name, but your solicitor will have to deal with any requisitions (queries) raised by the Land Registry if the form is not properly completed/executed and this could delay the registration of you as the new proprietor.  Your solicitor will need an undertaking by the seller's solicitor to assist with any requisitions after completion.

A solicitor is likely to charge extra for the associated work in completing the form to withdraw/cancel the restriction put in place by the seller.   Do you wish to be charged extra fees for your solicitor to do the work or do you think the seller's solicitor should be charging the seller who is the beneficiary of the restriction?