Land Registry being expedited

Bass0440

We made an offer on a 2 yr old new build house and then found out a month into the process that it had yet to registered on the land registry. The estate agent had not done appropriate checks prior to putting the house on the market.

 It was then put it for being expedited 2 weeks ago and this expedition has been accepted. The land registry have said there’s at least 3/4 properties that will also need to be registered for our property to be registered.
we are in a short timeline where we need to move in 8 weeks time (starting a new job for which we need to relocate and our baby being due)

have people had any experience of a similar situation? Is it completely unreasonable that this might be done in the next 4-6 weeks? Or would it be better to pursue and alternate house.
any advice would be appreciated

Doozergirl

FYI, the estate agent doesn't check the registration, that is your solicitor's job.   It doesn't surprise me at all that the property hasn't yet been registered to the current owners.  

The LR are pretty quick once soemthing has been expedited - I've done it a couple of times and it's been done within a few days as long as they have everything they need from your solicitor. 

The Land Registry Rep on here is super helpful.   They'll be along at some point, I imagine but there is a Land Registry thread somewhere that is theirs, or at least there used to be! 

user1977

Also bear in mind there is no legal need for all of the previous applications to have been completed. It's just a common demand among lazy risk-averse conveyancers.

TBG01

user1977 said:

Also bear in mind there is no legal need for all of the previous applications to have been completed. It's just a common demand among lazy risk-averse conveyancers.

But the Solicitor isn't demanding it? And I've never known for a Solicitor ask for the rest of the plots to also be registered at the same time.

There's likely tens of applications pending against the developers freehold title. Land Registry work in the order the applications are lodged. So expediting this property's application means looking at the other applications to make sure everything is in order. 

EssexHebridean

There can be reasons why applications have to be done in a particular order - and that can cause significant issues if disregarded as you have recently found at work. In this case the LR will likely expedite all the other relevant applications and work through them in order. 

Land_Registry

DM me the title number and postal address/plot number and I can take a look.
We have a backlog of this type of work and wait times can be lengthy hence the expedite process designed for scenarios like your own 
Expedition is though no magic wand - it really only gets you to the actual processing start line. How long the race is in this type of case relies on two things as others have referenced. 

The first is what else is pending, has priority, against the developer’s title? Other plot sales are unlikely to affect but there may be other applications that do and which must be done first before your plot can be registered
The second is has your application been submitted correctly and is everything needed present and of good quality. 65-70% of this type of application have flaws that need to be remedied so if that’s the case the race can turn from a sprint into a middle distance or longer race. 

NB - priority in this context is not about need such as new job, baby and my needs are greater than the others. It’s about the order in which matters have been dealt with by the developer and applications submitted. If they are waiting to be registered too and they have priority then they can slow down your race