Is my solicitor right ? - regarding deeds/statutory declaration

gemma.zhang

We completed on our house last Oct. We've got mortgage with NatWest. When we received a copy of the deeds later in Dec, it's cleared written that -

"Restriction: no disposition of the registered estate by the proprietor of the registered estate or by the proprietor of any registered charge is to be registered without a written consent signed by the proprietor for the time being of the charge dated 22nd Oct 2007 in favour of the NatWest referred to in the charges register."

When we asked our solicitor, he was telling us not to worried about it, as we've got mortage with them, it was normal.. Well that was in Dec,today, we received a letter from him, saying 'I am writing to confirm that I am now sending the original deeds to NatWest Bank for safe custody'. Would there be any problems with it at all ? I am really worried about it.

Anybody can explain is this general practice? or kind of the charge they put, who would it effect us ?

Also, we've submitted application to declare rights of ways, on the base that previous owner had been using the parking space, and back alleyway for 16 years. Our solicitor didn't sent it together when registered with Land Registry. When we asked about it in Dec, he was saying deed had to be registered first before submitting the rights of way app.. (, is it right? or just simply he forgot to send it ). Now, great, he told us "Land Registry have indicated they are unable to register this against the title as it can only be done where usage of the a right of way of upwards of 20 years is referred !!!".. Why did him charge us 200 pounds to draft it if it's not do-able !!!.. I do disbelieve him :mad:

Any advice, pls. I am really !!!!ed off with him now .. !!!

gemma.zhang

help pls pls pls.....

any advice, much appreciated.

lynzpower

Basically, most banks will hold the deeds to the house until you have paid off the mortgage in which case they will then send them to you back. ( solicitors sometimes have a safe for the storage of these in case of fire etc, you pay them to hold the docs for you)

There obvioulsy has been a delay in sending the documents. This isnt an overly BAD situation, Natwest will knwo that the property is there ( after all they surveyed it) and that the lending is secured to there, they just need the deeds now.


Basically in terms of charges, they mean ANY SECURED LENDING. that is, a) a mortgage b) a secured loan eg ocean finance et al. what they mean is that they cant allow any charges to be placed on the property ( such as a secured loan) without the natwest being advised first, and that the natwest, should you hit the financial rocks would be first in line for the reposession money.

As I understand it the property needs to be registered in YOUR name, ie not the previous owner with the land registry. Im not 100% on how this works, but the fact will remain that you cant put in any ROW/ PP issues until you are fully noted as the owner of the property. and that is done by the deeds.

As for the last bit. I dont get it

Are you saying that for the last 16 years someone has been using the allewy for parking.

Whos land is that is it your land in your boundaries? Or not?

gemma.zhang

Thanks lynzpower. Above has been very helpful.

The deeds are currently registered under our names, together with the charge by NatWest. So you are saying my solicitor HAS to send the original deeds to NATWEST. We always assume NatWest already has the deeds. So practically how does it work ? Do all people (assuming most) who have mortgage with any bank, willl have this 'charge' thing on their title deeds ?


As for the statutory declaration, we own the piece of land in front of the house, however, the road is a private road. Which means we don't have exclusive parking rights. As previous owner had been parking there for as long as she remembered(16 yrs). We asked her to draft a statutory declaration of the use of the parking space, and was advised to register it with land registry in case there are any future dispute over the use.

Well, 1st, our solicitor didn't send it together with the title deeds change - not sure if they forgot, or they had to send it afterwards.

2nd, now we were told it was unable to register as it's not over 20 yrs yet.. Well, if that was the case, our solicitor should have know BEFOREHAND, rather than charging us over 100 pounds for doing it !!!


Any advice pls..

chuckles1066

gemma.zhang wrote: »

help pls pls pls.....

any advice, much appreciated.

No problems for you to worry about; the bank "own" your home until you've repaid to them everything you owe..........they keep your deeds and register a charge against your property which limits what you can, and can't do whilst you live there.

It's all very standard and common practice.

chappers

The deeds are also unimportant NATWESTS interest will be registered at the land registry.
Basically you are saying that for the past 16 years the previous owner has crossed someone elses property to access the house that is now yours, as your solicitor says 20 years is the norm for habitual access, but he should have known that surely. I hope this isn't the only acces to your property.

gemma.zhang

little misunderstanding here. The previous owner had been parking outside the house for the past 16 yrs, although that piece of land belongs to the property, we don't have exclusive rights of parking there.

We had got our seller to draft the declaration in the hope that it can be added onto the deeds !!!.. Great, now it cannot be done coz of the length of the year. He shouldn't have spotted out initially, rather than wasting us the money to draft it !!!

I want to know where do we stand here !? What can we do !!??

amyparr

gemma.zhang wrote: »

So practically how does it work ? Do all people (assuming most) who have mortgage with any bank, willl have this 'charge' thing on their title deeds ?

Yes, all legal mortgages will have a "charge" placed on the title deeds. This is so that when you sell the property or try to re-mortgage, it will be clear that the bank are owed money and will be paid first.

amyparr

gemma.zhang wrote: »

little misunderstanding here. The previous owner had been parking outside the house for the past 16 yrs, although that piece of land belongs to the property, we don't have exclusive rights of parking there.

We had got our seller to draft the declaration in the hope that it can be added onto the deeds !!!.. Great, now it cannot be done coz of the length of the year. He shouldn't have spotted out initially, rather than wasting us the money to draft it !!!

I want to know where do we stand here !? What can we do !!??

It does sound as though he should have realised this time limitation if you did explicitly tell him to begin with.

Richard_Webster

If you have a mortgage then the bank or building society will have a registered charge on the proeprty. Some lenders don't want second and further mortgages (charges) being registered without their agreement so they have the extra restriction put in as OP quoted:

"Restriction: no disposition of the registered estate by the proprietor of the registered estate or by the proprietor of any registered charge is to be registered without a written consent signed by the proprietor for the time being of the charge dated 22nd Oct 2007 in favour of the NatWest referred to in the charges register."

This is fairly common and is nothing to worry about unless you are thinking of borrowing money from shark money lending companies!

Deeds and documents get sent to the lender for safe keeping following completion of the registration, so there's nothing unusual in that.

Normally with a seller providing a stat dec as to the use of an access for 16 years the seller would be asked to pay for a lack of access indemnity policy and the stat dec might be required to get the policy. The Land Registry won't register any rights of way until 20 years use has been proved and then they will use a qualifying expression like "It is claimed...". You need proof of 40 years use for them to register it without any qualification.

Getting the stat dec doesn't do any harm because in 4 years time you can do your own stat dec saying you have been using it without challenge etc and then 16+4 = 20.

I have to say I don't understand why your solicitor thought that 16 years would be enough to satisfy the registry, but if there is an indemnity policy then usually you won't have any problems selling and if someone does challenge your sue you can claim on the policy. Did they arrange one?