AIBU to ask my relative to cover repeated Land Registry costs?

[Bibblebrox]

Over a year ago, a family member made me and my sibling hurry up and sign land registry documents to transfer the deed of a property in her name. This was complicated as I don't have any doctor friends (one route to verify my identity) So I paid a conveyancer approx £150 to do this. It was stressful, but I was relieved to think that it then end of my dealings with this very annoying person.
So, one year later.. I get contacted by relative's solicitor to say that I have to fill in the forms again as they hadn't been submitted in time (signing date needed to be within the last 3 months).
I don't really have anything to do with this relative. I didn't have any prior warning from them that the paperwork would need redoing. Am I being unreasonable to contact relative via her sols to say that I will redo the forms, but only if they pay for my costs? (£150 to verify my identity via a conveyancer). I know it is petty but I don't think it is reasonable for me to pay this again, just because she submitted the forms late to Land registry?

Absolutely she needs to pay as she didn’t submit the paperwork on time

You shouldn’t have needed to pay that much. There are cheaper ways. Ring more local solicitors and ask how much they charge for it. I’m sure it’s was much less when I did something similar.

Perfectly reasonable for her to pay for her or her solicitor's incompetent actions.
No way would I be paying again and I would want paying before she got the form too.

But yes, she should cover your costs.

Tell them you want paying before its signed, you also want £300 to reimburse you for the first time since it was done pointlessly.

In my experience that would be fairly standard fee nowadays. Not sure OP should be spending time looking to save the family member some money at this stage. Maybe not the absolutely cheapest out there but not an unusual level of charge.

Is the land being transferred to you?

Absolutely the relative needs to pay this, tbh I think they should’ve paid the initial £150 anyway, sounds like this is benefitting them more than you?

I’d let the solicitor know they’ll need to get payment agreed from your relative first before you’ll do anything.

Why are you signing a property over to this person if you barely know them? Are you sure doing so is the right thing for you?

Obviously no clue about the circumstances of your situation but signing over a property would usually involve an exchange of money and not just identity verification but full legal conveyancing.

Property belonged to my grandparents, which my sibling and I inherited as our parent had died. The property is being transferred to our parent's sister, and I have known her all my life. My sibling and I were bought out of the property a few years ago.

Why wasn’t this paperwork completed at the time when they bought you out of the property? I would expect all of this to have been done in one go, have you spoken to the solicitors you used originally or is this who you’re still dealing with?

These costs are absolutely not for you to pay, like I said before I’m surprised you paid originally.

I'd be getting her to pay for the wasted one and the new one.

Surely this should have been done on completion of the buy out? Anyway, she should've paid your costs then and she should pay now.

It's the first time I've had to deal with this process, the relative in question chose to do some of this without the aid of a solicitor. My sibling and I have been looking after our small kids, and welcoming new ones. So I guess I just wanted to pay a small(ISH) fee to get my identity verified, and never have to communicate with this person ever again!
I'm more pissed that I have to contact them again over this crap.

You did your bit at your own expense first time round, it's not down to you that the paperwork wasn't submitted in time, clearly they weren't in a hurry and it was no cost to them so they'd no need to rush, but it's a bit of a piss take to expect you to pay out again.

Tell your relative that you're already out of pocket and can't afford to waste another £150 but if they'd like to transfer the fee over to you from their own account you'll be more than happy to do so.

You'll only do it once the outstanding £150 from last time and the additional £150 because "Aunty Tits-up" CBA to sort it out quickly enough has been paid.

If they won't pay, they'll have to wait until you have a free day...

You can do it via the post office.

It looks like the post office can certify that a document is a copy of an original. I can't see anything that says that would count as identity verification for land registry purposes.