Land registry delaying further borrowing frustration!

worriedegg

Hi Forumites

Hoping you’ll be able to offer some advice on our situation and if we need to follow up with a complaint.
We bought our property in October 2020, and started looking into further borrowing in March this year to do some home improvements.

We were advised by our mortgage company at the time that a flag was on our account due to the property not being registered. I chased my solicitor on this and it’s taken until yesterday to register the property after lord of back and forth and chasing on our part.

Part of the problem seemed to be they couldn’t find a signed declaration of trust we had arranged during the original process and eventually ended up resigning another copy and sending it through again. 

This was after months of chasing and feeling like we were being fobbed off. We contacted land registry ourselves twice with the case details  to try and resolve but didn’t receive any communications back from them. 

I've spoken to my mortgage company a number of times and as of today they were still advising me they couldn’t do anything as they’re unable to locate the property on the register despite me offering to send the documents to them. Not to mention having the problem explained to me each time I call despite me making them aware I understand the situation and being on hold for hours on end. 

They have now scheduled a further call and advised I chase my solicitor again. 

Obviously during this time the quote for the work has increased and we’ve missed our slot with the builder seating the whole project which is really frustrating.

Can anyone advise our next best steps? I’m sure the register will update soon, and we are aware of the delays caused by covid, but the whole process has made me feel quite powerless and frustrated. 

Would we be within our rights to raise a complaint to both the solicitor and mortgage company? Would there be any point doing so? 

babyblade41

I think you can have it expedited if you have a sale linked to the property or are facing financial hardship , I'm not sure whether your situation comes under this clause.

Registration is taking sometime now , a purchase of land we bought went through in about 7 months but our transfer of part still waiting after nearly a year , which is quite normal 

As for complaints then your solicitor should be first port of call, although to be slightly honest , why did you leave it so long to notice ? 

user1977

Are you saying your application has now been submitted and is being processed by the Land Registry? If so then there isn't any legal reason for the lender to continue to have your account "flagged", their security is in place and protected by priority searches. How long HMLR actually take to complete the application isn't really here or there.

Earlier delays might have been a cause for complaint to your solicitor, but it sounds like they've now done their job.

worriedegg

Hi both thanks for coming back to me.

@babyblade41 we just didn’t realise it hadn’t been completed that was a mistake on our part we only realised when we spoke to the mortgage company

@user1977 the registration is complete as I have the documents from the solicitor just the lender is advising apparently not… 

user1977

worriedegg said:

@user1977 the registration is complete as I have the documents from the solicitor just the lender is advising apparently not… 

Then send them to the lender and ask them what exactly else they think they need?