Vendors Conyeyancer unwilling to give undertaking for ID verification

berwick53

Hi, I'm an FTB and am rather anxious regarding the whole process.

Today I received an email from my conveyancer saying that the vendor's conveyancer is refusing to:

provide an undertaking (effective at the exchange of contracts) that upon notification and in a reasonable time, they will deal with (to the satisfaction of HM Land Registry) any ID verification query concerning the identity of the transferor/seller.

I'm rather worried that they refused this ...

They replied, "I have already clarified our position, and no undertaking will be supplied. We will, of course, assist you in t e very unlikely event Land Registry raises a requisition concerning our client’s ID."

Is there any way I can proceed without them providing this? My conveyancer is saying that this will cause issues:  "There is no possibility that a buyer can carry risk with regards to the identity of the seller (in the event you have failed to adequately administer your KYC obligations in a way that will satisfy the land registry."

What would people do in this situation? Thanks

propertyrental

I'd start to study Rightmove again and see what other properties are out there......

user1977

propertyrental said:

I'd start to study Rightmove again and see what other properties are out there......

Do you think it's a reasonable undertaking to ask for? I'm not overly familiar with this bit of procedure, but I'm not sure how a solicitor can undertake that they'll be able to satisfy HMLR's requisitions about their client's ID. Maybe @land_registry can chip in here. 

silvercar

Sounds like a non-resident, possibly non-UK passport holder vendor. So the conveyancer can’t easily verify the vendor. Maybe everything is being handled by a third party as the vendor is overseas and has no intention of visiting the UK and has no verifiable ID or the conveyancer has no way of verifying foreign documents.

Section62

user1977 said:

propertyrental said:

I'd start to study Rightmove again and see what other properties are out there......

Do you think it's a reasonable undertaking to ask for? I'm not overly familiar with this bit of procedure, but I'm not sure how a solicitor can undertake that they'll be able to satisfy HMLR's requisitions about their client's ID. Maybe @land_registry can chip in here. 

Surely the vendor's conveyancer should have verified that the person who has asked them to assist with selling  the property is the same person as the person who owns the property, and not someone trying to sell a third-party's property?  In other words, "is my client who they say they are"?

If that has been done then doesn't the satisfaction of HMLR follow as a matter of routine?

Summed up in the response from the OP's conveyancer "in the event you have failed to adequately administer your KYC obligations.... etc etc"

Why the OP's conveyancer thinks the vendor's conveyancer may not of done KYC adequately is possibly the key thing here.

berwick53

So I’ve just heard back again (and my solicitor is happy). They won’t provide the undertaking but have confirmed that they’ll adopt the clauses from the Code for Completion 2019 in its entirety (that essentially contains the undertaking). 

It looks like a lot of this discussion was had late in the day and wasn’t fully concluded when I was copied in. Thanks for the help anyways.