Advice on Land Registry and delaying sale

Fluffy_kittens9494

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice on the sale of my shared ownership new build flat and delays with the title deeds being registered in my name. For some background, my flat is one in a building of four, all four are shared ownership and the housing association own the freehold. I was the last to complete and move in (Dec 2023) out of the four flats. 

Fast forward to now and I have sold my flat (STC) however was told that delays with the Land Registry mean the deeds are not in my name and exchange can't happen until they are. My original purchase solicitors have expedited the case, but came back that "the Land Registry have advised this may take longer than the usual 10 days as they need to send out notices". They couldn't give me any more of a time frame than that. Can anyone advise what this means and how much longer than I'm looking at? Mortgage wise I move onto the variable rate on 1st Sep so was really hoping to complete just after, but I'm losing hope! 

The expedition was confirmed on 16th July, so today/tomorrow marks 10 working days. My current (selling) solicitors have advised me to contact the purchase solicitors (who submitted both the original and expedite request) at the 10 day mark to get an update from the LR, but those sols were notoriously bad for giving me updates and explaining anything to me the first time around. Looking for any advice here if possible before I go down that route.

Thank you for reading!

Fluffy_kittens9494

@Land_Registry Are you able to help please?

silvercar

First registration often takes longer than a simple registration of a new owner. The Land Registry also have to deal with the registration of the freehold of the block and the leasehold of individual flats. 

Fluffy_kittens9494

Thank you for the reply - I'm not sure if its first registration as the land already has two registrations when I search it on their website and a third unknown result which I think is my new application. I understand it will take longer as its a new build, but the original request has been in since Dec 2023 so I'm just trying to gage if I'm looking at weeks or even months from now.

user1977

Fluffy_kittens9494 said:

was told that delays with the Land Registry mean the deeds are not in my name and exchange can't happen until they are.

It can, but the solicitors can’t be bothered dealing with it.

Land_Registry

Expedition gets the case to the processing start line generally within the 10 days you refer to. It doesn't guarantee it will be completed within those 10 days
You refer to Notices being served so they will have a timescale attached, normally 15 working days, within which recipients need to respond - your conveyancer should be aware of what Notices have been served and when they expire
Happy to take a look and comment further if you DM me the title number/postal address