Land Registry Delay - 7 months after moving in, Sale still not registered?

MurleyC

Moved into a house in March 2021, considered a "new" build as a developer converted a large house into four smaller ones. 
Still not received the Deeds or had the sale Registered and am not listed as the new owner 7 months after the transaction. 
The Conveyancer who we have used before with prior house moves, has said there is no issue its a delay at the Land Registry.
Reached out to Land Registry directly to complain and ask if there is a problem and had no response.
What is going on, and what is considered a reasonable length of time to wait? Their own site says a 6 week delay, but this has been months?

user1977

Is there a particular reason why you need the registration to be complete? You are the owner from the date of completion, you're not disadvantaged in any way by how long the LR takes to process (unless you're contemplating another transaction).

Transfers of part (as in this case) always take longer.

p00hsticks

There's a very helpful Land Registry representative (@Land_Registry) who posts regularly on this board (there is a dedicated thread here for posts to them)

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5685941/land-registry-questions/p353   

I've tagged them so that hopefully they will see this thread and respond

jimbo6977

The Land Registry is very very far behind. Unless you have a pressing reason for the registration to be completed urgently, you will just have to wait in the queue, which could take as long as 18 months in my recent experience, although one can only hope they will catch up a bit now the covid situation is easing. 

TBG01

New builds can take up to a year or longer. 

Also, just a heads up that your "Deeds" will be nothing more than a two or three page document. Please don't complain to the Land Registry about this standard practice.

GoogleMeNow

Straightforward Transfers of Whole, i.e. one title number is transferred from seller to buyer are the quickest to be updated at Land Registry.

A new build Transfer of Part (plus new leases, so new leasehold title and freehold title if the property has been split into apartments), will take considerably longer.  More than a year or 18 months.  Unless you are selling, you won't be able to expedite the matter.

Loza2016

We bought our bungalow 11 months ago. Hadn’t been registered with land registry previously as last sold in the 50s. 

Still not been updated with the LR but I’m not worried. New & first registrations are taking longer. 

MurleyC

user1977 said:

Is there a particular reason why you need the registration to be complete? You are the owner from the date of completion, you're not disadvantaged in any way by how long the LR takes to process (unless you're contemplating another transaction).

Transfers of part (as in this case) always take longer.

Thanks, I have never encountered this issue before, it has all gone through very quickly during the last two moves. I take your point that it takes longer, although the other home owners who purchased houses within this building a year ahead of me didn't have to wait this long. If my expectation had been set to expect this to take 18 months or longer then it wouldn't be an issue for me. I would also like to understand how I can put a property alert on the house if its not registered, which is recommended to prevent fraud? 

user1977

MurleyC said:

user1977 said:

Is there a particular reason why you need the registration to be complete? You are the owner from the date of completion, you're not disadvantaged in any way by how long the LR takes to process (unless you're contemplating another transaction).

Transfers of part (as in this case) always take longer.

Thanks, I have never encountered this issue before, it has all gone through very quickly during the last two moves. I take your point that it takes longer, although the other home owners who purchased houses within this building a year ahead of me didn't have to wait this long. If my expectation had been set to expect this to take 18 months or longer then it wouldn't be an issue for me. I would also like to understand how I can put a property alert on the house if its not registered, which is recommended to prevent fraud? 

You'll have a title number allocated as soon as the application was submitted (might need to ask your solicitor for that) so I expect you can set up the property alert with that.

tooldle

I'm in a similar situation. We moved 7 months ago into a bungalow built in the late 70's, and purchased from the original owner. Our title will be treated by Land Registry as a first registration and, our solicitor advised it would likely be at least 12 months for the title to appears on the register.

Land_Registry

MurleyC said:

Moved into a house in March 2021, considered a "new" build as a developer converted a large house into four smaller ones. 
Still not received the Deeds or had the sale Registered and am not listed as the new owner 7 months after the transaction. 
The Conveyancer who we have used before with prior house moves, has said there is no issue its a delay at the Land Registry.
Reached out to Land Registry directly to complain and ask if there is a problem and had no response.
What is going on, and what is considered a reasonable length of time to wait? Their own site says a 6 week delay, but this has been months?

New builds, as others have posted, will wait several months before being registered as we have lengthy delays re those types of application. 

The 6 weeks you refer to is for already registered ‘old’ builds if you like where there’s an existing title so far less to do. 

The key with any purchase is ensuring you’re protected from completion to actual registration. That’s achieved in two ways, both linked, so before completion your solicitor will have lodged a protecting search. And then post-completion the actual application to register. 

The search provides 6 weeks of protection and it may be 4/5 weeks in before they apply to register. Once the actual application is in you are still protected for however long that takes. So whether the wait time is 1 week or 1 month or several months matters not as you completed, moved in and just need to wait until it’s registered. 

Naturally we all want everything done and ticked off ASAP but wait times are lengthy and once the application is started it’s often completed same day. So nothing to worry or say complain about as it’s all ‘wait’ time. 

If you’ve contacted us to complain but not had a reply then I’m very sorry. DM me your details and the case reference and I’ll track the complaint down to see what’s happened.