Seller about to pull out! Stuck due to no fault of our own

LTNRW

Hi all, I am in a bit of a crisis at the moment.

had an offer accepted on a property , on the 1st march.
Property was on the market for over 6 months
Before my offer.

To buy this property I am selling mine, I have no mortgage owing so will be using the equity to buy the new property outright.

My buyer is ready to exchange 
as am I and the seller of the property I am buying.

However.

it was discovered during the conveyancing of my sale, that an old charge that expired in 2019 was not removed 

We know who this was and have alerted them 
they have confirmed the expiration and have requested the remival
 
the land registry have also been made aware 
and have issued docs for the council to return and they can then remove 

in the meantime we are stuck 
the council were alerted in January to this
And are now putting my sale and purchase into jeopardy. 

I do not know what to do

DE_612183

Is the charge you have discovered on your property - or the one you are buying?

It's not clear

LTNRW

Mine, was an old council grant charge , placed in 2014 and expired 2019 

council have confirmed and sent a DS1 form and have confirmed to solicitors etc that the charge is being removed 

in the mean time we are facing our sellers pulling out
only a month after accepting the offer , 7 months after marketing said property! 

RHemmings

Just out of curiosity, was the charge visible on the title register for your property? Or, was it not there but discovered by some other method? 

anselld

You should ask your Solicitor to expedite with Land Registry.  Let the vendors know what the issue is and what you are doing to resolve asap.  They are probably bluffing anyway but less likely to follow through if they see you are making every effort.

km1500

it's might also be an idea to ask your local counsellor if they can help jog the council along ?

Grizebeck

anselld said:

You should ask your Solicitor to expedite with Land Registry.  Let the vendors know what the issue is and what you are doing to resolve asap.  They are probably bluffing anyway but less likely to follow through if they see you are making every effort.

you can then check with the land registry on the forum that its been expediated 

LTNRW

Council submitted DS1 and applied for it to expedited this was approved by land registry.

the application was made on February 1st! 

And the expedition made on the 13th February. 

This was approved.
surely it should be removed by now?!?

martindow

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5685941/land-registry-questions

The Land Registry rep posts here as Grizebeck above listed.  I suggest that you post there to see what they say.

FlyMeSomewhere79

The solicitors need to give you an explanation of what's happening and what they are waiting for. I had a lot of communication with my vendors through the estate agent when I recently bought a house, maybe get agent to talk to the vendors because their behaviour doesn't even make sense?

They want it to go through unreasonably fast but rather than be patient for just a short time they want to throw away many months to go through the remarketing of it and then the months of the selling process once they get another offer - they need to also remember that they were lucky things have gone through as quick as they have this time, that's down to the market halting for a long time last year and case loads being lower, it won't be the same next time because the market has picked up again and lots of houses have sold.

The whole buying and selling process needs streamlining as it's way too stressful for most people that go through it!

penners324

1 month of conveyancing is not very long.

Are your buyers serious?

3+ months is pretty standard