Land Registry delays - please let us know your experiences

flashg67

Not that recent but bought in Feb 21, took until Dev 21 to get the transfer/sale registered in our name. I just kept pestering my solicitor - they apparently have a duty to ensure this completes, or so I was told

user1977

flashg67 said:

Not that recent but bought in Feb 21, took until Dev 21 to get the transfer/sale registered in our name. I just kept pestering my solicitor - they apparently have a duty to ensure this completes, or so I was told

Yes, but that doesn't mean they in turn have to "pester" the Land Registry, or that the LR won't complete registration unless they're pestered. Once the application goes in, it will be completed, unless the LR finds there's actually a problem with it - in which case the solicitors would be told and then have to sort it.

In general, the timescales only really matter if/when you have a subsequent transaction and somebody is insisting on your previous one having completed registration. It's not as if you don't really own the property while the LR is processing your application.

Stato71

Stato71 said:

We bought a new build in December 2020 and our names are still not listed on the public facing system. The whole development is still listed as the whole thing rather than individual plots. Some houses were bought in early 2019 so they've been waiting 4 years for the  Land Registry to finalise the processing.   I contacted them about it in April last year and was told to try again in April this year. That sounds like they are woefully under staffed.

Just paid another £3 to check if my property has been updated to reflect my ownership and it's still listed under the developer's name.  No updates on the documents since March 2020. I guess this isn't likely to be an issue until I want to sell but it shouldn't take this long to be updated.

rubble2

Not a delay that is necessarily causing us any real problems but we bought our leasehold house in December 2018 with the intention of purchasing the freehold.

We finally got round to this in January 2022 and paid the freeholder the required amount, our latest estimation from LR for the completion of the transfer is September 2023 so over 18 months to get things sorted (assuming that they can keep to the estimated timescale).

silvercar

user1977 said:

flashg67 said:

Not that recent but bought in Feb 21, took until Dev 21 to get the transfer/sale registered in our name. I just kept pestering my solicitor - they apparently have a duty to ensure this completes, or so I was told

Yes, but that doesn't mean they in turn have to "pester" the Land Registry, or that the LR won't complete registration unless they're pestered. Once the application goes in, it will be completed, unless the LR finds there's actually a problem with it - in which case the solicitors would be told and then have to sort it.

In general, the timescales only really matter if/when you have a subsequent transaction and somebody is insisting on your previous one having completed registration. It's not as if you don't really own the property while the LR is processing your application.

There are three potential issues I can see with these delays:
1. If a solicitor has failed to register the sale, you won't know for a long time as for months you will assume it is in the queue at Land Registry, when in fact nothing has happened. 
2. If another sale is pending then the registration will need to be expedited. This takes 2 weeks from when the LR approves the expediting, so probably 3+ weeks overall, it could cost in legal work to apply for this and could impact on the need for a quick sale or re-mortgage.
3. If the freeholder or head leaseholder changes between the date of sale and when it is actually registered then further delays occur as the LR refers back to them. A major headache if the new freeholder isn't complying. Same if there are boundary issues etc that the LR has to survey or ask for further info, the longer they take to look at the case the more the delay in getting it registered.

The whole point of a central registry was to make the process simpler, these delays could cause more problems for some than having the paperwork held by mortgage lenders or individuals as it was decades ago.

I say this as someone who very nearly lost their purchase because 1, 2 and 3 all happened. Under the old system the seller would have known within weeks that a registration hadn't occurred and could have chased it up. 

diystarter7

babyblade41 said:

Pretty long for us in comparison to previous years

Good moring

How long is long, 3 weeks, 10 weeks, etc, etc and which part of the country then we could use that to weigh up the info

Thnaks

Stato71

Stato71 said:

Stato71 said:

We bought a new build in December 2020 and our names are still not listed on the public facing system. The whole development is still listed as the whole thing rather than individual plots. Some houses were bought in early 2019 so they've been waiting 4 years for the  Land Registry to finalise the processing.   I contacted them about it in April last year and was told to try again in April this year. That sounds like they are woefully under staffed.

Just paid another £3 to check if my property has been updated to reflect my ownership and it's still listed under the developer's name.  No updates on the documents since March 2020. I guess this isn't likely to be an issue until I want to sell but it shouldn't take this long to be updated.

Very pleased to say I now have confirmation from the Land Registry that my wife and I are the registered owners of our house.  Purchase date 8th December 2020 Official Copy of register of title Issued 22nd March 2023.

tryingmybest99

I've now been waiting 15 months (and 1 day). I'm a first time buyer and the sale included a lease extension. I'm worried something has gone wrong, but my solicitor assured me that he submitted the application and when I contacted the land registry by email, I just got an automated response.

Stato71

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80028197#Comment_80028197

It took 27 months before we got the official paperwork from the land registry, came via our solicitor. I had emailed the land registry after about 15 months and I got a reply a few days later, May have been a week. They confirmed it was in the pipeline but was " yet to be processed, check back in 12 months ". It wasn't the most reassuring response but it eventually got processed

AFF8879

I completed on my new build in December 2021, my neighbour in the semi detached on the other side of me completed about a month later, along with four other houses on the street. Mine is the latest transaction showing for our postcode (we all share the same one) on land registry website, I can't understand why it's taking over a year and counting for LR to update?! Not that I want to be nosy and find out what my neighbours paid…. 😏