I'm in the process of buying a house. It turns out that my sellers didn't actually own the Freehold when they thought they did (I don't know all the details, but it sounds like the there was a screw up when they purchased the house a few years ago, and it's only come to light when they came to sell). The lease they do own only has around 60 years to run.


Anyway the Freehold is actually owned by their council, and fortunately they've agreed to sell the Freehold to my seller. As I understand it - they require what's known as a "Transfer of Part" from the Council to my seller, to transfer the Freehold title to my seller.
That's all in progress, and seems to be going well. However I'm getting two different stories from my solicitors and the sellers/sellers solicitors (via the estate Agents) as to how long it will take. My Solicitor says this should take a couple of weeks to be registered at the Land Registry, my seller/sellers solicitor is saying this will take in excess of 12 weeks.


According to the Estate Agents, the reason is that this will take so long is because it's a "Transfer of Part" as opposed to just a regular "Transfer of Registration".


The Land Registry are quoting a turnaround time of 54 working days for Transfers of Part (just under 11 weeks) (I can't post links - but just Google "Land Registry Our Service Standards"), my Solicitor has said this is because most Transfers of Part don't have a sale dependent upon them and therefore there is no need for urgency. They stated that once the Registration is submitted, my Sellers Solicitors should contact the Land Registry to highlight that a Sale is dependent upon the registration being processed and the Land Registry will prioritise this registration.


My Solicitor doesn't want to exchange and complete until the Land Registry is updated. I can afford to wait a few weeks but I don't wait to wait 12+ weeks. Basically who's right?