Buying house with expired restriction on title deed - who’s responsibility to get it removed?

danii2522

Hi everyone. 

I’m just after a bit of advice from someone who understands this better than I do. 

We are currently in the process of purchasing a house, it’s been ongoing since the start of September. Everything has gone through from a search/mortgage point of view and there is no chain on either end so have no other ties. It’s currently being delayed by a restriction on the title deed and the solicitors are both saying it’s the other responsibility to sort. 

It’s a pretty standard detached house with garden, however a small chunk of the garden (about 2m) is on a seperate deed as it was bought back from manweb (now Scottish power) by the owners prior to the current sellers. The deed for this patch has an expired restriction on (expired in 2017) in favour of manweb. When the current owner purchased the house he had to Obtain a compliance certificate and was told that once it expired he could pay a fee of £170 to have the deeds linked and restriction removed, he was advised to do this prior to selling so it wouldn’t cause any issues. But he didn’t. 

So our solicitor has tried to raise this with manweb themselves to see if they can get it removed but is having no look so she is requesting that the sellers solicitor submits an RX3 asap on an expedited basis, however the sellers solicitor keeps replying with a transfer deed and offering to send an RX3 on completion. 

I have very limited knowledge around all of this, but it’s feeling very much like no one wants to take a responsibility over this expired restriction which is delaying the house sale. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience of this?

thank you in advance
Danielle x

GoogleMeNow

It would usually be something the sellers solicitor deals with, though they would charge additional fees to the seller for this work, as it is something they wouldn't have known about on instruction.  If they do this, then they would have to wait for the Land Registry to update the title and then send the completed title to your solicitor.  This would delay progress, as you wouldn't be able to exchange while this was outstanding.

Your solicitor 'could' deal with it after completion, but they would require an undertaking from the seller's solicitor to assist with any requisitions raised by the Land Registry.  Your solicitor would probably charge additional fees from you for the additional work.  This would enable you to exchange and complete before the restriction is removed, but it could take months afterwards to sort out and if it proves to be problematical, it will be your problem when you come to sell in the future.

I don't think your solicitor wants to deal with an issue that is really the sellers' responsibility.

danii2522

GoogleMeNow said:

It would usually be something the sellers solicitor deals with, though they would charge additional fees to the seller for this work, as it is something they wouldn't have known about on instruction.  If they do this, then they would have to wait for the Land Registry to update the title and then send the completed title to your solicitor.  This would delay progress, as you wouldn't be able to exchange while this was outstanding.

Your solicitor 'could' deal with it after completion, but they would require an undertaking from the seller's solicitor to assist with any requisitions raised by the Land Registry.  Your solicitor would probably charge additional fees from you for the additional work.  This would enable you to exchange and complete before the restriction is removed, but it could take months afterwards to sort out and if it proves to be problematical, it will be your problem when you come to sell in the future.

I don't think your solicitor wants to deal with an issue that is really the sellers' responsibility.

Thanks, that’s made it a lot easier to understand where they are coming from. It’s putting us in a difficult position as it’s causing such a delay, our mortgage offer expires at the end of March and I’m getting increasingly worried it’s won’t have completed by then

Amixo3032

Pull out if your complaining about it 

danii2522

Amixo3032 said:

Pull out if your complaining about it 

helpful 😂