Pending application on the title

middleagedriver

Hi, we are buying a house with a pending application on title and the vendors solicitor can’t issue contracts until the pending application has been actioned.

We think the reason behind the title change is the vendors have just went through divorce and the wife has changed her name back to her madden name so I can only assume this is the reason but we can’t get a concrete answer. 

It’s been 10 weeks since the application and online it says 4-6 weeks. But I have heard that there are huge delays at Land Registry so our solicitor can’t give us a timeline.

Has anyone been through the same thing and how long did it for the pending application to be actioned? 

housebuyer143

I believe the solicitor can expedite it at the land registry and it should be done in 2 weeks or so. If they don't, could be waiting 6 months plus.

middleagedriver

housebuyer143 said:

I believe the solicitor can expedite it at the land registry and it should be done in 2 weeks or so. If they don't, could be waiting 6 months plus.

I have heard 6 month quoted, but thought this was worst case. I’ll speak to my solicitor again but I think it will have to be the vendors solicitor that will have to push for it.

As far as I can understand there has been a different solicitor involved in this the divorce. So it feels like the solicitors that are dealing with the sale/purchase don’t want to have to deal with that, but again that’s just me assuming.

We’re not in a huge rush as we’re chain free and this is our dream house, but we had hoped to be in the house by early August. Now feels like that might be slipping away as we haven’t even started searches yet and we had our offer accepted 5 weeks ago. 

user1977

It would seem unlikely (and unnecessary) that they'd apply merely to change her name - more likely to be a transfer of title to one of them? 

middleagedriver

user1977 said:

It would seem unlikely (and unnecessary) that they'd apply merely to change her name - more likely to be a transfer of title to one of them? 

Possibly, but our offer did have to get both of them to accept it. We’re a little in the dark with this one.

canaldumidi

Buying from potentially warring parties.Often goes sour and causes complications. Notmuch you can do except

* be patient

* look elsewhere

* be patient AND look elsewhere

housebuyer143

middleagedriver said:

housebuyer143 said:

I believe the solicitor can expedite it at the land registry and it should be done in 2 weeks or so. If they don't, could be waiting 6 months plus.

I have heard 6 month quoted, but thought this was worst case. I’ll speak to my solicitor again but I think it will have to be the vendors solicitor that will have to push for it.

As far as I can understand there has been a different solicitor involved in this the divorce. So it feels like the solicitors that are dealing with the sale/purchase don’t want to have to deal with that, but again that’s just me assuming.

We’re not in a huge rush as we’re chain free and this is our dream house, but we had hoped to be in the house by early August. Now feels like that might be slipping away as we haven’t even started searches yet and we had our offer accepted 5 weeks ago. 

It's only the vendors solicitor who can expedite it. Normal processing times are definitely into the months. I bought a house a few months ago and it's still not registered in my name.
If they can't or won't expedite then I would probably consider pulling out as this will go nowhere for you fast. 

middleagedriver

canaldumidi said:

Buying from potentially warring parties.Often goes sour and causes complications. Notmuch you can do except

* be patient

* look elsewhere

* be patient AND look elsewhere

We don’t have any worries about it going sour, from what I can gather from the estate agent they are on good terms.

I was more wanting to find out what timescale to expect.

middleagedriver

housebuyer143 said:

middleagedriver said:

housebuyer143 said:

I believe the solicitor can expedite it at the land registry and it should be done in 2 weeks or so. If they don't, could be waiting 6 months plus.

I have heard 6 month quoted, but thought this was worst case. I’ll speak to my solicitor again but I think it will have to be the vendors solicitor that will have to push for it.

As far as I can understand there has been a different solicitor involved in this the divorce. So it feels like the solicitors that are dealing with the sale/purchase don’t want to have to deal with that, but again that’s just me assuming.

We’re not in a huge rush as we’re chain free and this is our dream house, but we had hoped to be in the house by early August. Now feels like that might be slipping away as we haven’t even started searches yet and we had our offer accepted 5 weeks ago. 

It's only the vendors solicitor who can expedite it. Normal processing times are definitely into the months. I bought a house a few months ago and it's still not registered in my name.
If they can't or won't expedite then I would probably consider pulling out as this will go nowhere for you fast. 

Thanks for the timescale. We won’t be pulling out, we sold our house in December and are now living with parents along with 2 kids, so we can be patient. These houses rarely come up and are sold in 1 day normally.

I’ll speak with our solicitor about it and see if we can request it to be expedited

Land_Registry

middleagedriver said:

housebuyer143 said:

middleagedriver said:

housebuyer143 said:

I believe the solicitor can expedite it at the land registry and it should be done in 2 weeks or so. If they don't, could be waiting 6 months plus.

I have heard 6 month quoted, but thought this was worst case. I’ll speak to my solicitor again but I think it will have to be the vendors solicitor that will have to push for it.

As far as I can understand there has been a different solicitor involved in this the divorce. So it feels like the solicitors that are dealing with the sale/purchase don’t want to have to deal with that, but again that’s just me assuming.

We’re not in a huge rush as we’re chain free and this is our dream house, but we had hoped to be in the house by early August. Now feels like that might be slipping away as we haven’t even started searches yet and we had our offer accepted 5 weeks ago. 

It's only the vendors solicitor who can expedite it. Normal processing times are definitely into the months. I bought a house a few months ago and it's still not registered in my name.
If they can't or won't expedite then I would probably consider pulling out as this will go nowhere for you fast. 

Thanks for the timescale. We won’t be pulling out, we sold our house in December and are now living with parents along with 2 kids, so we can be patient. These houses rarely come up and are sold in 1 day normally.

I’ll speak with our solicitor about it and see if we can request it to be expedited

Worth asking them to request expedition. Also worth asking why you can’t complete too just for clarity? 

A pending application can be an issue in some cases but if they know what it’s for then it can sometimes be just part of the completion process e.g. if a change of name and you know that then provided the completion is done in the ‘right’ names then no issue. 

But it can be trickier if you have a mortgage lender as they will view the ‘risk’ differently often depending on the type of mortgage on offer. 

Your solicitor makes the decision though, not us, but in some cases things can progress so if you’re asking for expedition then that’s logically the better Q to be asking. 

middleagedriver

Land_Registry said:

middleagedriver said:

housebuyer143 said:

middleagedriver said:

housebuyer143 said:

I believe the solicitor can expedite it at the land registry and it should be done in 2 weeks or so. If they don't, could be waiting 6 months plus.

I have heard 6 month quoted, but thought this was worst case. I’ll speak to my solicitor again but I think it will have to be the vendors solicitor that will have to push for it.

As far as I can understand there has been a different solicitor involved in this the divorce. So it feels like the solicitors that are dealing with the sale/purchase don’t want to have to deal with that, but again that’s just me assuming.

We’re not in a huge rush as we’re chain free and this is our dream house, but we had hoped to be in the house by early August. Now feels like that might be slipping away as we haven’t even started searches yet and we had our offer accepted 5 weeks ago. 

It's only the vendors solicitor who can expedite it. Normal processing times are definitely into the months. I bought a house a few months ago and it's still not registered in my name.
If they can't or won't expedite then I would probably consider pulling out as this will go nowhere for you fast. 

Thanks for the timescale. We won’t be pulling out, we sold our house in December and are now living with parents along with 2 kids, so we can be patient. These houses rarely come up and are sold in 1 day normally.

I’ll speak with our solicitor about it and see if we can request it to be expedited

Worth asking them to request expedition. Also worth asking why you can’t complete too just for clarity? 

A pending application can be an issue in some cases but if they know what it’s for then it can sometimes be just part of the completion process e.g. if a change of name and you know that then provided the completion is done in the ‘right’ names then no issue. 

But it can be trickier if you have a mortgage lender as they will view the ‘risk’ differently often depending on the type of mortgage on offer. 

Your solicitor makes the decision though, not us, but in some cases things can progress so if you’re asking for expedition then that’s logically the better Q to be asking. 

Thanks for the reply. I spoke to someone on the Land Registry thread about this issue. We still don’t have a resolution but we do know that our solicitor has requested that the vendor contacts the original solicitor to expedite it as the request has to come from the original solicitor, is this right?

We are mortgaged. I haven’t spoke about going ahead with it still pending as we still don’t know what the application is for. I know the title has a Help to Buy associated with I as well so could be that or a change of name.

We have an appointment with our solicitor on Tuesday so hoping to get a bit more clarity on what we can do next as it’s been 7 weeks since our offer was accepted.