Unregistered title?!

[lavenderpekins]

Hi I just wondered if any wise mumsnetter has any experience of a property which has an unregistered title and the property is subject to a Legal Aid Act Charge – this will be removed on completion we've been told today by our solicitor however our vendors solicitor are still waiting to hear back from the Legal Aid Board..

I've had a bit of a google but it's confusing..

Thanks in advance

[wowfudge]

The charge will be discharged when the property is sold - it's of way of getting the legal aid money paid back. The vendor will need to pay some of the proceeds of sale to cover the legal aid bill.

The property will have to be compulsorily registered when its ownership is transferred to you.

You solicitor will need to verify the ownership before it can be transferred to you and ensure the charge is removed.

[lavenderpekins]

Thank you fudge have you had any personal experience with this? Our solicitor has said it can really delay things!

[wowfudge]

No, not the Legal Aid charge, but unregistered title yes. Get the estate agent selling the place you are buying on the case to help push everything through.

[randomsabreuse]

Legal aid charges are a pita because the office are generally slow confirming stuff. Our faffy purchase was made faffier waiting for them but ok in the end. We were moving from rented on a rolling monthly tenancy and weren't moving straight in due to work we needed to do so could wait. Eventually exchanged and completed 3 days apart 7 months after our offer was accepted (messy post divorce sale...)

Unregistered title is slightly more expensive as it takes a little more time for the solicitor to prove ownership provided the deeds are well organised and clear, especially boundaries. I would expect the solicitor to be unable to give a reliable estimate of costs until they'd seen the deeds. If the deeds are a mess, messy boundaries or missing a link in the chain it can be an expensive mess.

On the plus side nowadays scans of title deeds mean that your solicitor isn't dealing with a dusty, mouldy clump of disintegrating parchment between exchange and completion!