Land Registry - how long does first registration take?

[TremoloGreen]

Hi, we are trying to buy a property with a tight deadline from our lender for porting our mortgage. We need the sellers to make an application for first registration of the property (they have title deeds going back to 1938) and also a right of way by prescription over an adjoining grass verge between the property and the public highway (they have lived there for 43 years with no interference). There are no records of who owns the grass verge. The next-door neighbour has a corresponding ROW but no other neighbours do (presumably due to other lenders not insisting).

Is this something they would need to send out a surveyor for?

Their solicitor has submitted the application a week ago, but the LR are still stating that they have not received it(?) He is chasing them today apparently, but I'm concerned that this isn't going to get done in time to meet our lender's deadline. He also says that the LR no longer will agree to expedite applications due to lenders' deadlines - is this correct?

If somehting is being claimed, either land or an easement, then this can lead to a surveyor being asked to visit. Each application is processed on merit though so that may not always be the case.

The issues around 'lender's deadlines' you refer to relate to where they are chasing the panel solicitor to ensure that their loan has been secured correctly. That does not seem to be the case here.

The urgency is for the first registraiton to be completed so you can complete the purchase. The applicant should therefore contact us and provide details to explain why the urgency exists.
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Thanks for replying. The solicitor thought that the case might be straightforward since the neighbours on one side already have a corresponding row by prescription.

I didn't really understand your comments about lender deadlines, sorry for being thick. Do you mean that where a deadline will nix a sale going through, they will take it into account? That's the situation we're in. I'm just freaked out that we're so close to our deadline and might lose our chance to buy a house altogether. .. I won't get another mortgage now being on maternity leave and we're already close to being priced out in our area.

Lender's set deadlines for their panel solicitors, namely those who register their mrotgages for them
That is quite different it seems from your circumstances as the urgency is the sale/purchase and not the lender pressing their solicitor to get their mortgage registered asap
If the registraiton is impacting on the sale/your purchase then the seller's solicitor should be contacting us and advising as such and asking us to consider expediting the registration

Thanks - apparently he has done that. I guess all I can do is cross my fingers and hope it can be pushed through in the next two weeks!

I won't get another mortgage now being on maternity leave

Are you sure? You still count as employed.

We asked our lender and they said it would reduce the amount they could offer us, i.e. not enough to actually buy a house in our area, even though we have a 50% deposit. I guess we might find another lender who was prepared, but then the rate would be higher etc and that might make it unaffordable.

I guess the new affordability guidelines are behind it? Odd, since it's only temporary, and we would still manage to pay e.g. rent at a higher rate than our mortgage payment would be (currently).

Ime (am a solicitor) the Land Registry can take weeks for anything other than a straightforward transfer of whole. I have just had a transfer of part take three months First registrations are about as complicated as it gets.

Is it your lender who is insisting that the registration happen before you complete? It's not a legal requirement, you would purchase the unregistered land and then your solicitor would deal with the registration after completion. Either way you can take out indemnity insurance for the RoW, backed up with a statutory declaration from your sellers.

Fingers crossed that it goes through quickly for you, sounds horribly stressful. I have generally dealt with very helpful people there so you might be lucky. They're just suffering from having lost too many good staff due to the cuts.

It is our solicitor that said the lender would consider her negligent if she did not try to get the best class of title (or something like that, I'm not a legal expert). So I am not 100% sure that the lender absolutely requires it and it may be worth asking about the indemnity route if it looks like they are not going to complete in time. The solicitor is unwilling to budge really and says she represents the lender as well which is fair enough... we did think about changing solicitor but my feeling is that it wouldn't actually be any quicker now and another solicitor might insist on the same anyway?

Do you know if we could still purchase on an unregistered basis and do the indemnity insurance if the application has already been submitted?

I hesitate to criticise a fellow professional but I do wonder if this is a case of your solicitor taking the easy option. Unregistered land is not straightforward at all and so would be much easier if it was registered first. I haven't acted for a buyer in this situation but have for a seller so I know that it's entirely possible (our Client didn't want to pay the costs of getting it registered). Buyer did have a mortgage.

The application shouldn't make any difference so long as it hasn't been completed by the time of completion. Your solicitor would need the Land Registry reference number to tie up the paperwork.

Two weeks is not long In your situation I think I'd be asking to speak to the supervising partner on Monday morning.

Unfortunately she is the supervising partner... we live in a small town and the high street solicitors are generally v small companies. Hers is her and her husband. So I can't go against what she wants unless I change solicitor which I believe is a hassle in itself. It might be an option to contact the lender directly and get it in writing from them that they would be happy with the indemnity only, then I guess she couldn't refuse?

The way she phrases it is that the sellers have a defective title since they bought the property with no ROW. Hence having to include the prescriptive easement in the first registration. I can't really understand any more than that.

The good news (?) Is that we have now spoken to parents who are happy to sort us out with the 5k we stand to lose by not porting our mortgage, which gives us an extra 3.5 weeks until the mortgage offer expires properly. The land registry habe said they will expedite the case but even six weeks might be very tight. I just don't think I can cope with the nail biting until then. I started looking at other cheaper houses on RM today

The other option is that we change mortgage provider if I can find one that will accept my maternity pay but I don't know if that will also cause an unacceptable dela delay to the rest of the chain.

Oh that is a shame. Stuck with her then! It's certainly worth a conversation with your mortgage provider, although your contact wouldn't be the one who would make that decision. There is usually an internal legal team who would deal with that sort of issue.

I'm not disputing that the title would be significantly improved if it was registered and with the RoW. The point is though that that does not need to happen pre-completion and your solicitor must explain to you why she's risking £5k of your money for (imo and ime) an unnecessary reason. There may well be a good reason, it's just not clear what that is from what you've been told.

Thanks so much for all your helpful replies Cake. SO the good new today is that the LR have registered the property, however the right of way to the driveway has only been listed as a 'purported' ROW with the statement of truth on file. Our solicitor thinks this will probably be acceptable to our lender as long as we get a 'lack of legal easement' indemnity policy but has forwarded all the paperwork to them to check what they require. SO that's given me something new to stress about... bloody hell! I hope they still agree to give us the mortgage, or at least let us know quickly so I can find a new lender before maternity leave starts!

That's wonderful news Tremolo! Fingers crossed the sale goes through quickly now. You'll soon be in your lovely new home