To be absolutely furious with house seller

[ChagSameachDoreen]

Our house sale/purchase has been limping along for a fucking eternity (November 2020, to be precise).

We offered on a property in February 2022 which was finally accepted. Took the seller an age to find an onward purchase, but luckily our buyer (young, first-time) was willing to wait.

We had a completion date set for September 12th - perfect, as our buyer's mortgage offer expires end of Sep, and we have religious holidays starting on Sep 24. I was just waiting for confirmation to book a removal company.

Today my solicitor calls and says there's a hold up. The title of the house can't be transferred to me yet, as the seller's ex-husband's name is still on it. Since she doesn't speak to him anymore, it has to go through the courts, and nobody has even the vaguest clue when it might be completed.

ONLY NOW THIS HAS COME UP?

I am fucking raging.

Has anyone been in a similar situation, and if so, how long did the courts take to remove the other person off the title?

Tell the solicitor that you will report his costly incompetence to the Law Society unless he is willing to waive his fees regarding the house you want (wanted?!) to buy.

I've done this in a different scenario to house purchase, and received compensation of over £2k drawn on the solicitor's personal bank account (as opposed to the firm's) on condition I signed a document promising not to report him.

@ChagSameachDoreen it just adds to the stress doesn’t it! Our sellers knew my due date and seemed lovely, so I was shocked they didn’t care about the position they are putting us in suggesting a move when I’m full term 😢

@ChagSameachDoreen I’ve just seen your update that the vendor didn’t actually know about the issue until now, at first I thought it was wilfully not disclosed!

Much depends on whether the other person wants to sell the house. Even if the couple are not speaking they may be keen to sell and get their share of the proceeds, especially if no longer living there. As someone else has said if you've been trying to sell for 2 years, go ahead with the sale of your anyway, find somewhere and/or rent short term.

@ChagSameachDoreen

I've listed some of your statements in date order to make it easier to refer to:

November 2020 - you listed your own property for sale. You stated "It took AGES to get any interest, but we stayed put and waited instead of dropping the price. We eventually had an offer, who subsequently pulled out. Then we got another offer in Jan 2022." Sorry, but although this must have been very trying for you, it is irrelevant for this conveyancing transaction.

February 2022 - you offered on your purchase, which was 'finally' accepted.

February to 'ages' 2022 (?) - Seller finds an onward purchase, though you said "I'm pretty angry with the seller. She took six months to find an onward purchase, and we waited because a) our buyer was willing to wait, and b) because it's literally the last house in that area we can afford since the prices went up."

17th May 2022 - Draft contracts are received by your solicitor - this would contain the title documents.

Searches ordered (irrelevant to this particular issue). Management Pack not received (irrelevant to this particular issue).

11th July 2022 - Management Pack received (but is irrelevant to this particular issue)

11th July 2022 - Your solicitor raises enquiries, including an enquiry asking the seller's solicitor to remove the unilateral notice.

13th July 2022 - Searches raised - (irrelevant to this particular) issue.

July/August 2022 - Seller's solicitor responds to your solicitor's enquiries, but states "To Follow" on the enquiry regarding the unilateral notice.

There is no need for your solicitor to be alarmed at this point. As far as he is concerned, this is being attended to by the seller and their solicitor, as would be the norm. This is not your solicitor's issue to sort out.

5th September 2022 - late in the day (your words) your solicitor receives confirmation fro the seller's solicitor that there is an "issue" with the title.

6th September 2022 - your solicitor advises you that there is a problem/issue with the title, saying ""The vendor is having to amend the title as an ex-partner needs to be removed and they don't speak. There is a restriction on the title which needs to be removed before completion can take place and we can register your title, and this is now with the courts. The seller's solicitors don't currently have a completion timeframe for this"

Sounds like your solicitor has been pressing the seller's solicitor for confirmation of the removal of the restriction and this has not been provided.

They have also stated "The vendor is the sole owner of the property this is not the issue.
Her ex-husband has registered a unilateral notice against the property in 2010 (this was probably to protect himself in the case of divorce proceedings and financial issues).
The seller would have been made aware of the issue at the time and would have received notification from the Land Registry regarding this."

7th September 2022 - Your solicitor's boss advised you:
"[Vendor's solicitor] did not advise us that there was any issue, they just kept stating "to follow" in their replies.
I understand from [my solicitor] that it was in fact the agents who let us know that there was an issue.
I have requested that [my solicitor] contacts [Vendor's solicitor] for a full update in relation to the position of the unilateral notice.
She will do this today and let you know once she has received a reply."

It would be a lot easier if the seller could get in touch with the ex to persuade him to sign the paperwork, rather than involve the courts. She may not be in touch with him, but there could be a sister/brother/friends that could assist in finding him/passing on paperwork for signature. In this era of social media, you would think that someone she knows would know where he is.

7th September: Latest update:
"From my solicitor just now, reporting what the vendor's solicitor told them:

"We await to hear back from charge holder, we have requested completion of UN2 form and once received we will need to submit to the Land Registry. We hope to receive the completed form shortly."

The charge holder is the ex-partner. If he signs the UN2 form, I'm guessing the Land Registry can be changed. I've requested that they use an expedited service at their cost.

Apparently the vendor had no idea about this restriction and is devastated.

Let's hope the ex-partner cooperates.

September 2022 - You're 5 months pregnant - sorry, but this is irrelevant to a conveyancing transaction, unless it is possible to work around it.

12th September - "We had set this as the completion date". Who set this? You, your buyers, the estate agent? From everything you have said, the solicitors have never agreed this date and they won't agree any dates until their work is complete. Besides the transaction really only started on receipt of the draft contract pack on 17th May and you are selling and buying leasehold properties, which take longer. You are not even 4 months forward from then, which is the current average timescale for a freehold sale and purchase.

24th September - religious holidays - sorry, but this is irrelevant to a conveyancing transaction, unless it is possible to work around it.

End of September - buyer's mortgage expires - they may need an extension or apply for a new product.

If the ex signs the paperwork or the court grants the sale, it is possible that your solicitor can submit the paperwork to the Land Registry following completion, providing the seller's solicitor agrees to provide an undertaking to assist with any requisitions raised by the Land Registry.

Lastly, You state "I'm going to speak to a legal ombudsman". You can only make a complaint about your own solicitor, but apart from not advising you of the issue until yesterday, after the initial enquiry was made in July 2022, I do not think you have a case here. It is the seller and the seller's solicitors' issue and their job to sort the issue out. It would have been far easier and quicker for the seller to have located the ex, rather than let it "go through the courts", but assume the seller was only made aware of it when she received the initial enquiry from your solicitor in July. If she replied "I don't know anything about it", then that response would not have been satisfactory to your solicitor and further clarification needed, hence why it's now become a problem for you and your intended completion date.

Phew! Sorry for the long post.

FreckleSpy "There is no need for your solicitor to be alarmed at this point."

the solicitor should have at least notified OP of the charge. Whether or not they should be "alarmed" is personal but I know my solicitor would have told me.

also, it seems someone at the firm told OP "this is the first we've heard of it" just this week, which I see is not correct, but doesn't speak well for their abilities.

a couple of posters are talking to OP as if she should have known all this. We employ solicitors because we don't know. I agree you have to oversee a solicitor to some extent but there are definitely ways in which they should be advising their clients. Hence why they get paid.

OP has been let down here. I don't know what the SRA would say but to a large extent, people need legal paperwork explained to them.

and why even get as far as draft contracts without the charge being sorted?

It just never crossed our minds.

Thanks for laying it out like this.

I know my pregnancy and the religious holidays are immaterial to the mechanics of the sale; I just wanted to give the full picture to illustrate my annoyance!

Another house has come up on the same street for £5k more, and DH and I have booked to view it tomorrow.

Should we make an offer if we like it, or wait to see if the vendor's partner signs the UN2 form?

Just make an offer! Honestly I'm currently making myself ill with the stress of ours 😭 wish we'd pulled out 6 months ago but husband is dead set on this house, even if it means me having the baby in our crappy rental 😭

@EmmaH2022

Restrictions are often listed on titles, (e.g. a Tenants In Common restriction, a Home Rights Restriction, a Council Right to Buy restriction, a Management Company consent restriction or a Unilateral Notice restriction for an unpaid loan).

It is the seller and seller's solicitors responsibility to remove the restriction before selling to another party. This is not unusual for a conveyancing transaction and not one that the purchaser's solicitor need to advise the purchaser about as the purchaser will not be buying with the restriction still in place.

OP's solicitor has said that the seller's solicitor has repeatedly advised that the removal of the restriction is "to follow" over the last two months. In working days, that isn't that much time in which to ascertain that "to follow" was an indication that there was a major issue.

I actually don't see that OP's solicitor has done anything wrong. They wouldn't be aware of the problem as the seller's solicitor is acting in the best interests of the seller (their client) and they would be unlikely to have disclosed a potential problem to OP's solicitor for as long as possible, while hoping the seller would somehow get the ex to sign the paperwork as she is more likely to know where he is than her solicitor, who won't know him from Adam.

Yes, of course, you employ a solicitor because you don't know these things. That's why solicitors don't fill their clients in with every aspect of the transaction, because it creates more confusion and panic than it answers. You are paying them to do a job, that's what they are doing. They have let OP know of this problem because OP was expecting to complete next week. OP will not be completing next week and they needed to let her know why.

Only you can decide this, unfortunately.

If you view the new property and make an offer, then this part of your conveyancing transaction will start from the beginning again. Will your buyers wait? If you do like the property, ask the vendor what their onward plans are, e.g. have they found somewhere already, are they the end of the chain, are they willing to move into a rental (bear in mind that vendors often promise to move into a rental, but then change their mind when they realise it's not an easy choice).

If you wait for the ex to sign the UN2 form, it could take a couple of weeks or a year.

We've decided to wait and see what next week brings in terms of any news about the ex signing the UN2.

I inquired about the other property, and the owner has a full day of viewings planned, so we have no chance of getting it for £160k. We won't view it.

So unfortunately I was kind of in this situation.

I went through a bitter divorce and was awarded the FMH, my ex was ordered to remove his name from the deeds.

I was going to sell the property but decided to release equity to buy a new one. I was told by the estate agent of the new purchase that getting my ex off the deed of the old house wouldn't be an issue.

My ex is nasty and refused to comply or sign the TR1 to get his name off. I took him to court to get the order enforced and it took a total of 3 months to complete, mostly because my ex is a text book narcissist and still refused to comply, (the Judge signed it in the end).

The couple selling me their house were extraordinary people but also had a delay on their end too so I got lucky! This is all very recent for me (I moved home in July).

OP I wish you well, its such a horribly stressful time.

There is a backlog in the courts and it could take at least a year to obtain the required removal of the person's name from the deeds. I would speak to your solicitor and see if s/he could give you a timeline of a court date. I would also be interested in the buyer's divorce agreement. It could be as simple as her divorce solicitor writing to her ex requiring him to fulfill his obligations. You should ask that question. Either way, you may find that you will have to let your buyer go and remarket your house as the prices have gone up.