Land Registry application pending since March 2026

Tatatun1986

Hi everyone,

My solicitor submitted an application to HM Land Registry in March 2026 following the completion of my property purchase, and it is still pending.

I have contacted HM Land Registry several times, and they keep giving me the following update:

"The caseworker dealing with your application has needed to refer to a senior officer for guidance on one or more technical points. This may result in a delay while these points are considered and, depending on the outcome, may lead to further requisitions or communications that would prevent it from being completed until any outstanding issues are resolved."

The status has been showing this since around mid-August. However, no requisition has been raised so far.

Has anyone experienced this before? Is it a normal part of the Land Registry process for an application to be referred to a senior caseworker/officer?

Also, does anyone have an idea of how long it can typically take once an application reaches this stage? Any experiences or advice would be greatly appreciated.

jimbog

@Land_Registry

The Land Registry rep will hopefully be along shortly

soolin

You’ve reminded me to chase our own solicitor this afternoon. We applied to have a probate house transferred into beneficiary name 19 months ago and nothing has happened yet. solicitor is coming up with all sorts of excuses the latest being that paperwork and documentation is not getting through to land registry.

Chief_of_Staffy

My purchase took just over six months to register on LR from completion late last year. My solicitor had advised 9 - 12 months, so it was better than expected. I'm also interested in the purchase price of three other houses, just out of curiosity; none have yet come through on LR although they were completed between 8 and 10 months ago.

Land_Registry

OP first - wait times can be lengthy and referral to a senior officer is quite common and is invariably re a very specific registration point/issue re the submitted application and/or existing registered information.

Once a transaction completes and the application to update or create a new land register has been submitted your ownership is protected. There is nothing to worry about once your conveyancer has confirmed it has been submitted and asking for updates/chasing progress is only necessary if there's something else in the pipeline such as you are selling, remortgaging or some other reason you need things registered asap.

If there is an urgency your conveyancer/you can request expedition Request an expedite - GOV.UK

Expedition shortens any remaining wait time re processing starting. It doesn't guarantee it will be completed in 2 weeks for example and if an application has already started to be processed we won't expedite it as it's already underway.

Referrals are quite common and timescales will vary re next steps being decided and simply a case of waiting for your conveyancer to let you know when things change although most I suspect simply let you know once all completed.

HMLR price paid data - this is generally updated once an application is received but can also be done when it is finally registered. Applications to update or create a register after completion of a purchase aren't always submitted immediately after the sale/purchase completes. A long wait is unusual but it's very rare for each and every sale/purchase completion to follow the same timeline re submission to us for registration. Some are submitted quickly whilst others may wait longer. Only the conveyancers involved can explain why that might be.