Land Registry question - unregistered property

Pluto_24

Hello

We are in the process of purchasing a house that was built in the 60s and only had one owner. The property has never been registered to the land registry and therefore we would be taking the risk of registering it for the first time. We don't quite understand what these risks are and they haven't properly been explained to us by our solicitor, if someone can please advise?

Our solicitor doesn't think we'll have any issues with registering the property as:

-The searches didn't show any issues.

-The land boundaries are clearly identified on the plan and includes a North Arrow

-The land charges search confirms that no other parties have attempted to register any claims to the land. As there are no pending claims, this will support our application.

-Based on Google's historic images, the hardstanding has been in place since before 2008 and therefore did not require planning permission. The font extension and garage conversion to a dining room were registered with the local authority and, since works are over 20 years old there is no enforcement action that can be pursued even if regulations were not followed (I think?), which we don't think has been the case but there is no documentation as to the 1977 extension works.

Our main concern is that I noticed yesterday a difference in the land boundaries when comparing physical boundaries on Google images with the plot on the deed. It appears that a small piece of land is used by the neighbour and not by the seller as per the deeds, i.e there's an overlap between the two boundaries. I've asked the solicitor to confirm whether this is an issue as they haven't highlighted it in their report but we haven't heard back yet. But I'm worried this was an oversight. The title plan of the property of our neighbour available on the Land Registry shows that the small piece of land overlapping belongs to the neighbours and is in line with the physical boundaries observed.

Our second concern is whether we would have any issues with the land plot as the plan on the deeds shows a brown hatch area labelled as land with right of access to the adjacent power station (there are no physical boundaries for the part of the land that needs to be clear for access). However the boundaries are shown in red so the solicitor is not really worried about that. But again, they haven't explained the risks to us.

I would appreciate it if you could please help us understand what are the risks associated with an unregistered land, land plot discrepancies vs physical boundaries vs neighbours boundaries and also the "shared" land for the right of access to the substation.

Too many risks to proceed? Should we be taking a legal indemnity insurance policy, what would that cover and how it will mitigate the risks? We don't really want a property that will take ages to sort out its various issues and perhaps even be unsellable in the future if buyers are put off by the same discrepancies.

Many thanks in advance.

user1977

Pluto_24 said:

We don't quite understand what these risks are and they haven't properly been explained to us by our solicitor

Have you told your solicitor that you don't think they've properly explained it to you, and that you've had to resort to asking strangers on a web forum? I'm not sure I'd trust them to do the job if they can't give you proper advice about what they're planning to do.

Pluto_24

user1977 said:

Pluto_24 said:

We don't quite understand what these risks are and they haven't properly been explained to us by our solicitor

Have you told your solicitor that you don't think they've properly explained it to you, and that you've had to resort to asking strangers on a web forum? I'm not sure I'd trust them to do the job if they can't give you proper advice about what they're planning to do.

We asked at the very beginning what the risks with an unregistered property are, the only answer we got is that if they have any doubts they will request from the seller to register the property themselves before we proceed with the sale but that could take over a year which we don't have. So far they don't have any concerns, but then again they haven't spotted the land boundary discrepancies which is very worrying..!!

I asked here because I noticed a Land Registry rep usually responds to similar questions. I'll keep chasing our solicitor of course and probably ask for someone more senior to be involved with our case.

p00hsticks

One possible risk you don't mention is that the people you are buying from don't actually own the property they are selling to you. Are you (or your solicitor) confident that they can prove they own the title ? e.g. do they have the physical title deeds for the property in their possession ?  

Hoenir

Pluto_24 said:

We don't quite understand what these risks are and they haven't properly been explained to us by our solicitor, if someone can please advise?

Solicitors tend not to speculate. Not a case of one size fits all. Also their time costs money. Rather than a constant dialogue. They'll wait until the fullest picture becomes available. On which a meaningfull and purposefull discussion can be had. 

Pluto_24

p00hsticks said:

One possible risk you don't mention is that the people you are buying from don't actually own the property they are selling to you. Are you (or your solicitor) confident that they can prove they own the title ? e.g. do they have the physical title deeds for the property in their possession ?  

Yes they have the originals. The solicitor is quite confident in that respect 

Pluto_24

Hoenir said:

Pluto_24 said:

We don't quite understand what these risks are and they haven't properly been explained to us by our solicitor, if someone can please advise?

Solicitors tend not to speculate. Not a case of one size fits all. Also their time costs money. Rather than a constant dialogue. They'll wait until the fullest picture becomes available. On which a meaningfull and purposefull discussion can be had. 

We have received the results of all the searches, all the documentation the solicitor has asked and responses to their queries and I asked if we are waiting for anything else and our solicitors said no. Their report did not include the overlapping land unfortunately, it's something they should have spotted as soon as they saw the title plans. I'll keep trying to get hold of them, perhaps if it's something that only just now was brought up to their attention they will try to investigate.

But again, if anyone knows in general what the issues are with unregistered properties and issues with the boundaries that would be much appreciated. Perhaps there's no issue at all if we are not claiming that small piece of land, but I don't want to get in a battle to try to prove who owns that land before we can register it. And we want to be able to sell it later on without any issues 

chalky_white_2

A solicitor relies on its clients, who have seen the property in person to identify the boundaries appear correct against any plans on the title. 

Unregistered land is perfectly legal. Registration is a formality, and you will need to trust your solicitor has dealt with unregistered title to know the process and that they have identified the complete package that HM Land Registry would require to register the title. 

The risk for registered and unregistered title is much the same. Unregistered title just takes longer to review.

Pluto_24

chalky_white_2 said:

A solicitor relies on its clients, who have seen the property in person to identify the boundaries appear correct against any plans on the title. 

Unregistered land is perfectly legal. Registration is a formality, and you will need to trust your solicitor has dealt with unregistered title to know the process and that they have identified the complete package that HM Land Registry would require to register the title. 

The risk for registered and unregistered title is much the same. Unregistered title just takes longer to review.

I thought they rely on information available, including google images tbf, as people don't have the land plots or deeds when they have their viewings to start comparing boundaries at that stage. I guess the additional risk with registering a land for the first time is when boundaries are not well defined in the deeds, which is why they told us if there's any doubt they'll ask the seller to register it first.

user1977

Checking you’re buying the expected extent of property is just as much an issue when buying a registered title to be honest - see umpteen previous threads here about such issues! The buyer and/or surveyor needs to confirm that the titles match what they viewed. 

Pluto_24

Hi @Land_Registry
Could you please advise? Thank you 😊