Land registry application by seller preventing remortgage even though I have title in my name!

indigo_star

So we all know that land registry is not having a great time. I bought my house in Dec 2024 and my mortgage fixed term ends at the end of Sept. I have everything in place for a new mortgage. My conveyancer for the remortgage alerted me to the LR not having updated the title, and so I called them, expedited the case, got an official copy of the register title sent to me.

Forwarded to conveyancer, who said there is an outstanding application on the property by Persimmon who I bought the house off. They owned it for about 2 weeks as the previous owners part exchanged with them and moved into one of their new builds, and I bought this place.

Now ordinarily if Persimmon had their application in first my application could not be expedited without expediting theirs. But from time and date stamps it seems that they made the application on 23rd Jan, which was AFTER my solicitor made my application, hence I actually come first in the priority order.

However now, I have this outstanding application on the LR, meaning I cannot finalise my remortgage, and it is reliant on Persimmon's conveyancer to either expedite or remove. They don't appear to be being massively helpful and they clearly do not have the same sense of urgency as I do, namely risking losing my remortgage offer and rolling onto my current lender's SVR which would cost me a huge amount more.

I am at a loss as to how this can be allowed to happen and I really don't know how best to approach it. Do I think about making complaints to Persimmon? Do I expedite it myself and see what happens then, although doing this means that it would take longer than if they just cancel it, but they aren't telling me what they are doing, just that they are waiting for LR to get back to them. 

Has anyone had similar to this, where they actually have the title in their name and STILL can't move forward because of others' actions? It seems wild to me that this can be allowed to happen.

grumpy_codger

I'm no expert, but I don't understand how this could happen.
Who have you bought the property from - Persimon or the previous owner?

indigo_star

Persimmon. They took the house as part exchange and were only legally the owners for mere days before I completed and moved in. But apparently they lodged an application almost a month after my completion and move in date.

ian1246

I would contact Persimmon directly and inform them of exactly how much extra your SVR per month will be vs. Your offer - and that they will be liable for those costs due to their negligent actions infringing on your good & proper ownership of your property.

For that matter - have you checked your sales contract? Surely there's a section about the seller undertaking to discharge their legal obligations in a timely manner so that you have full rights & entitlements to the property - being blocked in remortgaging i would suggest would fall foul of any such condition... they could potentially have breached your original sales contract?

indigo_star

ian1246 said:

I would contact Persimmon directly and inform them of exactly how much extra your SVR per month will be vs. Your offer - and that they will be liable for those costs due to their negligent actions infringing on your good & proper ownership of your property.

For that matter - have you checked your sales contract? Surely there's a section about the seller undertaking to discharge their legal obligations in a timely manner so that you have full rights & entitlements to the property - being blocked in remortgaging i would suggest would fall foul of any such condition... they could potentially have breached your original sales contract?

This is exactly the sort of practical and helpful advice I came here in search of, off to find sales contract now. Thanks enormously for this.

indigo_star

indigo_star said:

ian1246 said:

I would contact Persimmon directly and inform them of exactly how much extra your SVR per month will be vs. Your offer - and that they will be liable for those costs due to their negligent actions infringing on your good & proper ownership of your property.

For that matter - have you checked your sales contract? Surely there's a section about the seller undertaking to discharge their legal obligations in a timely manner so that you have full rights & entitlements to the property - being blocked in remortgaging i would suggest would fall foul of any such condition... they could potentially have breached your original sales contract?

This is exactly the sort of practical and helpful advice I came here in search of, off to find sales contract now. Thanks enormously for this.

It actually mentions this sort of event. Clearly this is anticipated. See clauses below.

If at the date of this Contract the Seller has not yet been registered at Land Registry as proprietor of the Property the 

Seller will as soon as practicable after the Seller has acquired the Property submit an electronic application to Land 

Registry and immediately following completion of registration of the Seller as proprietor shall deliver up to date official 

copies of title to the Buyers conveyancer.

The Seller shall not withdraw its electronic registration and will promptly deal with all requisitions raised by the Land 

Registry on receipt to enable the completion of registration to take place without delay.

I'm tempted to tell LR to expedite as it seems to me reading the contract that they won't cancel the application which is what I've been told to ask them to do.

silvercar

Any advice @Land_Registry?

Land_Registry

The advice would be to contact us direct to query what's happened and why.
It reads to me as if the two applications were submitted in the wrong order but if we have updated the register to the OP's name we must have had both transfers/two applications but when the first application was completed the second one was left 'hanging' 
Pretty sure OP has already been in touch with us via our own support forum and am sorting it already but if not then happy to take a look if OP DMs me the title number - no need to if you have been in touch though as hoping it's sorted today 

indigo_star

Land_Registry said:

The advice would be to contact us direct to query what's happened and why.
It reads to me as if the two applications were submitted in the wrong order but if we have updated the register to the OP's name we must have had both transfers/two applications but when the first application was completed the second one was left 'hanging' 
Pretty sure OP has already been in touch with us via our own support forum and am sorting it already but if not then happy to take a look if OP DMs me the title number - no need to if you have been in touch though as hoping it's sorted today 

If you're XXX then yes it's the same query and I too hope we have it sorted today. Posted on a number of forums at the same time and you've been fantastic in your help so thank you!

Land_Registry

Noted - and I have replied on our own forum to confirm all sorted
PS - could you edit out my name from your post please, appreciate it's only a first name but if we can stick to Land Registry on here then MSE are content