Land Registry -First registration - Help!

[TesterPotQueen]

Hi
I would be so grateful if anyone has legal knowledge or personal experience re this topic.
My dad died a few months ago and we are just getting round to putting his property on the market. Awaiting probate and know we can't proceed without it, but market is so slow I'm sure we'll have it by the time anyone makes an offer.

Gathering deeds and papers etc, I've discovered that the property is not registered with the land registry, not surprising as parents lived there for 50 years.
I'm trying to get a solicitor lined up and ready for when we have a sale, and also need them to vary the will next year, so have been exchanging emails with a couple to get quotes etc.
I have had two directly opposing pieces of advice, issued quite firmly, and so I'm going to ask on here if anyone can give me any insight.

Solicitor1 strongly suggests we apply now to do first registration of the property either as executors or as individuals ( me and sibling) as says many purchasers and or mortgage companies will shy away from an unregistered property.

Solicitor 2 would firmly advise us to wait until we have a sale and try and get the new owners to register it, or at least register it ourselves then, as this can be expedited under a Memorandum of Sale and can be done in a few weeks. Otherwise he suggests it could take months or even YEARS to do without a sale.

So, 2 lots of opposing professional advice...what's best?

When we bought our house last year, it hadnt been registered with land registry as the last sale was about 40 years ago.

When we completed, we were told that registration with LR would likely be 18-24 months due to the back log, but it took just over a year in the end.

I cant advise on what course of action you should take, but it might be helpful to know how long the registration might take.

It didn't bother us that it wasn't registered, I think our solicitor mentioned it as part of the searches, but we had other pressures to deal with, and we were advised it was a simple issue that would eventually be resolved, which it was.

I think I would go with solicitor 1's advice. Unregistered land is quite rare these days, and I think the number of conveyancers who can deal with it adequately and not be scared it, by is reducing yearly.

It doesn’t have to be registered before you sell it so it’s up to you really. Any decent lawyer will be able to deal with it provided you have the paperwork. That said, this is assuming it’s one unregistered house in a road surrounded by registered properties so not a case of tricky boundaries. If it’s more rural and harder to sort plans out, that might be a bit more off-putting for a buyer.

Property lawyer here: go with option 1. It may be that the overall fees are a bit higher, but it’s likely to make an eventual sale much easier.

The Land Registry will expedite an application on hardship grounds if your solicitor shows them it’s on the market.

Also, make sure your lawyer is familiar with unregistered land. Many, many are not.

Happy to answer any questions

We deal with a lot of first registrations and we sell land without being registered. Property on the other hand is a little trickier and it is definitely worthwhile doing the registration and having it expedited. Expedition means they will start to look at it within 14 days but depending on how complicated it is, if they require more information and send requisitions to your solicitor will dictate how long it takes.

good luck

What part of the country are you in OP? Solicitors in areas where compulsory first registration came in later will have more experience and it won't be an issue for them.

I'd say option 2, it's really not a problem. But I've dealt with plenty of unregistered land.

There is no best advice! I’m a solicitor, and would advise you to sell without registering but I understand some firms don’t have the knowledge of how to do unregistered conveyancing within the firm and therefore insist a buyer does it first.
You can’t do it until you have received probate anyway, so if you get a buyer in the meantime I wouldn’t bother.
Costs will be higher if you do it first which is why I wouldn’t advise it,
but it might make it fractionally more attractive to a buyer if it’s already registered.

I am looking to buy and have come across two unregistered properties. Both of them would be ideal for me but I'm refusing to go and look at them. My first thought is if it's easy to register them then why hasn't it been done by the next of kin/owner already so therefore it must be either difficult to do or very expensive. I don't have the spare funds if its expensive, and I don't want a long protracted sale considering I will probably be in a chain. Properties my way are selling fast, these two haven't.

Get it registered yourself if you want a sale, unless you want to "gift" a property developer a cheap deal.

Our house was unregistered when we bought it. It was no big deal. It did take nearly three years for it to be registered with the Land Registry though!

A couple of years back it took around a year to get my DP's house registered.
If you have the relevant paperwork I'd be tempted to try to get on with it, so that time probate has gone through and then a sale it should be done.

HM Land Registry: processing times - GOV.UK

@LittleGreenDragonsprobably because they don't have to. I've only had 2 voluntary first registrations in 20 years and only requested the seller registered before my client purchased once. That was a very fiddly title.

I know they don't have to, but how many people are like me though? Looking at top of finances/mortgage and risk adverse to anything not straight forward? Those properties i mentioned could probably have been sold five times over by now and yet they are sitting in a hot local market and being dropped in price (one has dropped £40K so far). That is what OP needs to also consider. Do they want to shift it asap, or have it listed and going cold for a year?

Thanks everyone for your replies. It really seems like both sets of advice are valid but being unregistered can be extremely off putting to some potential buyers.
I think I have a few more questions but have to go now, will pop back to thread later.

Just to say thanks again to all who replied. I've discussed with my sibling and on balance we've decided to apply for first registration as soon as probate comes through.