LAND REGISTRY UPDATING

Martok

In March 2025 my granddaughter purchased a property that had been repossessed in October 2024. Yesterday a letter was delivered in the name of the previous owner informing them that a charging order had been made against the property.

On checking the land registry I found that the property is still registered in the previous owners name.

Should my granddaughter be worried about this charging order?  She can obviously prove that she now owns the property and I also understand that the land registry can take some time to re-register a property.

Keep_pedalling

She needs to speak to her conveyancing solicitor. 

badmemory

Land registry are very behind from previous posts on here.

silvercar

@Land_Registry can explain better than me, but I would have thought the charging order waits in the queue to be put on the property and would fail as your grand daughter’s ownership would be registered first.

Land_Registry

A few things to mention here that may be relevant/of help
Applications, when submitted, are dealt with in 'priority' order. That invariably means in the order that they are submitted so for example if someone applied to register/protect a charging order against the seller, and before your granddaughter's purchase completed, then it would have 'priority'
Yes, we do have a backlog of some types of application but the 'priority' order protects everyone, inc us, in that regard as often the wait is not an issue 
Mail addressed to an individual shouldn't be opened by someone else but returned to sender 'addressee gone away' for example. I do appreciate and understand why that may not always happen and for a whole host of possible reasons.

The answer to the Q, should she be worried, would be a Yes and to speak to her conveyancer especially if she has not yet bene registered as the owner
I suspect there may be another explanation as to the purpose of the letter but if you have read it then I assume it is as explained.
Happy to take a look at what's happened if you DM the title number for her property - I can think of a different scenario to what's been posted but without the specifics I can't be certain

Section62

Martok said:

In March 2025 my granddaughter purchased a property that had been repossessed in October 2024. Yesterday a letter was delivered in the name of the previous owner informing them that a charging order had been made against the property.

...

If she hasn't already, she should set up a free alert on the property using the Land Registry alerts service.  This would let her know if certain actions were being taken in relation to the property, without having to rely on letters (to someone else) coming in the post to her address.

https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk/

Land_Registry

Section62 said:

Martok said:

In March 2025 my granddaughter purchased a property that had been repossessed in October 2024. Yesterday a letter was delivered in the name of the previous owner informing them that a charging order had been made against the property.

...

If she hasn't already, she should set up a free alert on the property using the Land Registry alerts service.  This would let her know if certain actions were being taken in relation to the property, without having to rely on letters (to someone else) coming in the post to her address.

https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk/

Always a service to consider although the alert notification only confirms who has applied and on what date. It doesn't then inform you as to the specifics involved or 'certain actions'. Just a significant application has been submitted
The Property Alert service is aimed at assisting property owners to prevent property fraud. The expectation is that they will be aware of a significant application by X being imminent already. 
In the OPs scenario the alert wouldn't have really helped as not expecting anything
And where someone wants to know 'more' re a pending application then OS3 is available for that purpose - Official search without priority (OS3) - GOV.UK 
Hopefully OP will share specifics re this case anyway and all can be cleared up 

Section62

Land_Registry said:

Section62 said:

Martok said:

In March 2025 my granddaughter purchased a property that had been repossessed in October 2024. Yesterday a letter was delivered in the name of the previous owner informing them that a charging order had been made against the property.

...

If she hasn't already, she should set up a free alert on the property using the Land Registry alerts service.  This would let her know if certain actions were being taken in relation to the property, without having to rely on letters (to someone else) coming in the post to her address.

https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk/

Always a service to consider although the alert notification only confirms who has applied and on what date. It doesn't then inform you as to the specifics involved or 'certain actions'. Just a significant application has been submitted
The Property Alert service is aimed at assisting property owners to prevent property fraud. The expectation is that they will be aware of a significant application by X being imminent already. 
In the OPs scenario the alert wouldn't have really helped as not expecting anything
And where someone wants to know 'more' re a pending application then OS3 is available for that purpose - Official search without priority (OS3) - GOV.UK 
Hopefully OP will share specifics re this case anyway and all can be cleared up 

Thanks.  To clarify for the OP, I meant 'certain actions' would trigger an alert, not that the alert would contain details. (I'm guessing there are some things LR might do in relation to a property which wouldn't necessarily trigger an alert?)

That said, the .gov site does say "The alert will tell you the type of activity (such as an application to change the register or a notification that an application may be due), who the applicant is and the date and time it has been received.".

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, isn't the "not expecting anything" scenario the one where an alert may have the most benefit?

Land_Registry

Section62 said:

Land_Registry said:

Section62 said:

Martok said:

In March 2025 my granddaughter purchased a property that had been repossessed in October 2024. Yesterday a letter was delivered in the name of the previous owner informing them that a charging order had been made against the property.

...

If she hasn't already, she should set up a free alert on the property using the Land Registry alerts service.  This would let her know if certain actions were being taken in relation to the property, without having to rely on letters (to someone else) coming in the post to her address.

https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk/

Always a service to consider although the alert notification only confirms who has applied and on what date. It doesn't then inform you as to the specifics involved or 'certain actions'. Just a significant application has been submitted
The Property Alert service is aimed at assisting property owners to prevent property fraud. The expectation is that they will be aware of a significant application by X being imminent already. 
In the OPs scenario the alert wouldn't have really helped as not expecting anything
And where someone wants to know 'more' re a pending application then OS3 is available for that purpose - Official search without priority (OS3) - GOV.UK 
Hopefully OP will share specifics re this case anyway and all can be cleared up 

Thanks.  To clarify for the OP, I meant 'certain actions' would trigger an alert, not that the alert would contain details. (I'm guessing there are some things LR might do in relation to a property which wouldn't necessarily trigger an alert?)

That said, the .gov site does say "The alert will tell you the type of activity (such as an application to change the register or a notification that an application may be due), who the applicant is and the date and time it has been received.".

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, isn't the "not expecting anything" scenario the one where an alert may have the most benefit?

The only things that trigger an alert using that service is a 'significant application' - namely an official search with priority and/or an actual application to update the register itself. That's another way of saying "such as an application to change the register or a notification that an application may be due" as an official search is part of the normal conveyancing process that indicates an application may be on it's way soon
An enquiry, correspondence (both ways) or requests for copies etc would not trigger an alert
You are 100% correct that the "not expecting anything" scenario is the type of alert that would have the most benefit. 
But in this case the correspondence wasn't addressed to the OP's granddaughter so had nothing to do with her by name. Yes, a link to the property, but not something that would trigger the alert you are referring to 

Land_Registry

OP has DM'd the details and I have messaged back. Just sharing the general points here for others to follow
The Notice issued to the previous owner of the property was with regards an interim charging order issued against her in 2024 re an outstanding debt. The Notice explained how the register was being updated to refer
The grand-daughter's conveyancer will have been aware of the application to register same by virtue of their normal checks/searches made before completing on the grand-daughter's purchase
The sale was by way of a transfer under power of sale (repossession) by the previous owner's mortgage lender and completed in early 2025, after the order was issued and applied for
A transfer under power of sale by a lender whose legal charge (mortgage) was dated and registered before such an order was made will overreach that order and register entry. And when the purchase by the grand-daughter is registered the entry will be removed from the register and the creditor notified. Neither the previous owner or the grand-daughter would receive Notice re such an update
Buying a repossessed property can raise different Qs and concerns but there's a clear process to how any registered charges/third party interest are dealt with from a registration perspective - Practice guide 75: transfer under a chargee's power of sale - GOV.UK 
Letters, in this case a Notice from us, issued to someone else should be returned undelivered - Can I open someone else's post? — MoneySavingExpert Forum. An old thread from 2011 and views may have altered since but have always been made aware myself  
If opened then the conveyancer acting is the best person to deal with any concerns as they would/should already be aware and able to allay any concerns re your purchase. And the Notice can still be returned undelivered