Removing a old charge on property

1bellagio

Hi All,

Looking for some assistance please.

We are in the process of selling our parents house since their passing. My sister is the executor of the will. We have probate granted for both parents but have come across a charge on the property dating back to 1990's. The company that the charge was in favour are no longer trading but still active. They were acquired by a real estate company but they don't have any record of the charge relating to the property and are not answering calls or emails.

Our conveyancing solicitor acting on our behalf does not seem to be assisting in any way and has suggested that we take this on ourselves.

The house sale was agreed earlier this year but we are stuck on what to do next as we need to exchange/complete.. I see that there are forms from HM Land Registry to remove a charge with timescales involved. Has anyone come across this before? Which forms should we complete and submit to Land Registry?

Thanks in advance.

user1977

When you say the company is no longer in existence, do you mean it's a limited company which is now dissolved?

1bellagio

user1977 said:

When you say the company is no longer in existence, do you mean it's a limited company which is now dissolved?

Its a private limited company now trading as another. Its a active non trading company according to their accounts on companies house. Sorry the comment "no longer in existence" is misleading. The parent company is not responding to calls/emails.

user1977

What was the purpose of the charge? i.e. ought they be to discharging it now, or is there possibly a debt still due? Ultimately you can go to court to get it discharged if the company is refusing to (or simply not responding), but it's probably more a matter of getting it onto the desk of whoever deals with "complicated stuff nobody else can be bothered sorting out".

NeverTooLate

We had the same issue although it was with a company who would communicate with us. They told me that they could only remove the charge once the property was registered - which I couldn't do as the registration forms need the details of the charge.

In the end I badgered them so much that they removed the charge for me just to make me go away, I think. It only took a few days once the forms went in.

canaldumidi

Is the property registered?

I see that there are forms from HM Land Registry to remove a charge with timescales involved. ....Which forms should we complete and submit to Land Registry?

Ufortunately you cannot submit the form - the beneficiary of the Charge must do that, otherwise we'd all simply remove our mortgage charges and sell our properties without paying off our mortgages!