Mortgage company failed to remove the charge from my deeds at the Land Registry.

Statex2_2

Mooving house I just had a phone call from my solicitor to say that there is still a charge on my house from the original lender, the loan was paid off in 1999. The greedy ******** even  charged me £60 at the time for ending my mortgage and a further £25 for not continuing to use their insurance. They did not send me the deeds to my house and i had to chase them . Strangely after I made a complaintthey said that our letters had crossed in the post  and I received the deeds 2 months later. they said I could leave the deeds with them for£25 per annum, at that time, I refused and they held on to my deeds until I made a complaint after which they were returned to me.

You may say it is safer to leave them with the lender in safe storage. However my neighbour did that, the company went out of business (solicitors) and the deeds can't be found. 

The company were Alliance and Leicester. The reason for this post is to ask the question,can I sue them for the extra expense as solicitors charge for everything even phone calls these days? Alliance and Leicester building society no longer exist. Not sure who took them over. The solicitor said this happens frequently and that Santander, and Nationwide are the worst offenders. I hate building societies they rob borrowers and savers alike.

knightstyle

A&L were taken over by Santander.

user1977

A&L is now part of Santander.

You haven't told us what, if any, extra expense you've actually incurred. In any event, I think it's up to you to make sure the security is discharged - you have had almost a quarter of a century to sort it out. Had you asked them to discharge the security? Had they told you that they had discharged it?

km1500

If you have the 'deeds' to.your house then then you will have a copy of the charges register.

TripleH

Write a complaint letter to Santander including copies of paperwork to support why the charge be removed and ask it be done within 10 working days.

Don't throw blame etc, focus on getting the charge removed and be polite and friendly as it may well get things done quicker explaining you are looking to move home.

Remember to place any fault on A&L not Santander.

Owing to the time passed, you are unlikely to get anything more than a goodwill gesture (if it was up to 5 years since your chances would be far better) as in their eyes you have suffered no loss and could have checked and chased much sooner.

Good luck, but put the letter in ASAP.

GDB2222

user1977 said:

A&L is now part of Santander. You 

You haven't told us what, if any, extra expense you've actually incurred. In any event, I think it's up to you to make sure the security is discharged - you have had almost a quarter of a century to sort it out. Had you asked them to discharge the security? Had they told you that they had discharged it?

I think that it’s pretty clear that the OP's point is that the £60 paid to end the mortgage ought to have covered the cost of A&L removing the charge. I have no idea whether that is customary, but I would hope it is. If the op now has extra costs as a result, he should complain to the lender and see what they say. 

Obviously, it would help if others say whether the lender removes the charge themselves.

daveyjp

We cleared a Santander mortgage a few years ago.

Charge was cleared, but I had to call to instigate it (however that may also have been due to a historic endowment which was linked to the mortgage).

Whilst not needed due to compulsory registration the deeds arrived within a few weeks.  

Tiglet2

GDB2222 said:

user1977 said:

A&L is now part of Santander. You 

You haven't told us what, if any, extra expense you've actually incurred. In any event, I think it's up to you to make sure the security is discharged - you have had almost a quarter of a century to sort it out. Had you asked them to discharge the security? Had they told you that they had discharged it?

I think that it’s pretty clear that the OP's point is that the £60 paid to end the mortgage ought to have covered the cost of A&L removing the charge. I have no idea whether that is customary, but I would hope it is. If the op now has extra costs as a result, he should complain to the lender and see what they say. 

Obviously, it would help if others say whether the lender removes the charge themselves.

Yes, the lender removes the charge.  The Coventry Building Society removed their charge over my property within days of redeeming their mortgage and I downloaded a copy of the title register as soon as the Land Registry advised that there had been activity on my title, just to confirm!

If OP has any paper evidence that the mortgage was paid, i.e. old bank statements/correspondence from A&L, that would make it much easier for Santander to trace and do the necessary formalities.

FreeBear

Statex2_2 said:. They did not send me the deeds to my house and i had to chase them . Strangely after I made a complaintthey said that our letters had crossed in the post  and I received the deeds 2 months later. they said I could leave the deeds with them for£25 per annum, at that time, I refused and they held on to my deeds until I made a complaint after which they were returned to me.

Since around 1990, just about all properties were subject to a compulsory first registration with the Land Registry (it is something that had been gradually phased in for much longer). Once the property is on the LR database, the records will have been digitised and there is no longer any need to store the original paper documents.

Check to see if your property is registered here -> https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

If it isn't, I would recommend you do it as soon as possible. It doesn't cost much, but will certainly save on delays & legal bills if/when you eventually sell.

user1977

Tiglet2 said:

GDB2222 said:

user1977 said:

A&L is now part of Santander. You 

You haven't told us what, if any, extra expense you've actually incurred. In any event, I think it's up to you to make sure the security is discharged - you have had almost a quarter of a century to sort it out. Had you asked them to discharge the security? Had they told you that they had discharged it?

I think that it’s pretty clear that the OP's point is that the £60 paid to end the mortgage ought to have covered the cost of A&L removing the charge. I have no idea whether that is customary, but I would hope it is. If the op now has extra costs as a result, he should complain to the lender and see what they say. 

Obviously, it would help if others say whether the lender removes the charge themselves.

Yes, the lender removes the charge.  The Coventry Building Society removed their charge over my property within days of redeeming their mortgage and I downloaded a copy of the title register as soon as the Land Registry advised that there had been activity on my title, just to confirm!

If OP has any paper evidence that the mortgage was paid, i.e. old bank statements/correspondence from A&L, that would make it much easier for Santander to trace and do the necessary formalities.

But what was the normal practice in 1999 for what sounds like an unregistered property?

SDLT_Geek

user1977 said:

Tiglet2 said:

GDB2222 said:

user1977 said:

A&L is now part of Santander. You 

You haven't told us what, if any, extra expense you've actually incurred. In any event, I think it's up to you to make sure the security is discharged - you have had almost a quarter of a century to sort it out. Had you asked them to discharge the security? Had they told you that they had discharged it?

I think that it’s pretty clear that the OP's point is that the £60 paid to end the mortgage ought to have covered the cost of A&L removing the charge. I have no idea whether that is customary, but I would hope it is. If the op now has extra costs as a result, he should complain to the lender and see what they say. 

Obviously, it would help if others say whether the lender removes the charge themselves.

Yes, the lender removes the charge.  The Coventry Building Society removed their charge over my property within days of redeeming their mortgage and I downloaded a copy of the title register as soon as the Land Registry advised that there had been activity on my title, just to confirm!

If OP has any paper evidence that the mortgage was paid, i.e. old bank statements/correspondence from A&L, that would make it much easier for Santander to trace and do the necessary formalities.

But what was the normal practice in 1999 for what sounds like an unregistered property?

Normal practice for unregistered property was for the lender to endorse on the mortgage / legal charge a receipt.  That operated to cancel the charge.  The mortgage / legal charge would be returned with the deeds to the owner.  A class C1 land charge might have been registered under the Land Charges Act and that would usually have been cancelled as well.