Looking for a conveyancer to hand hold me through TR1/AP1/Office Copies completion

[veryconfusedatthemoment]

Hi, I am getting divorced and the family home will be transferred from joint names to my name only. I requested the forms from the Land Registry and was very impressed with the help notes and their help over the phone. So I decided that as I knew the property and didn't need to worry about getting professional advice I would do my own transfer. Naturally ex's solicitors have been very sniffy about this. They requested a copy of the transfer form and office copies. They have sent this back to my solicitor I used for the financial statement with a very rude note that "there were substantial deficiencies" in the form and no office copies. When I dropped off the TR1 at their offices I queried the office copies and was told they would call me if there were problems. I am now annoyed and confused. Can anyone help? I just cannot afford to pay any more legal fees and this is not high risk so really wanted to save money by doing it myself.

Hi Confused - it'll be hard for anyone to give good, solid advice without seeing the office copies of the title you are transferring via the TR1. I'm cautious by nature but would definitely suggest you ask a conveyancer to complete this (or give it the once over) on your behalf. Although you know the property, it will be one of your largest assets and so it is v important to get it right. Some freehold titles are very straightforward, some are not! If it's a leasehold title, there may also be additional clauses that you need to include in the TR1 and notices etc to give after completion. I'm assuming there is no mortgage over the property?

Do you have a mortgage?

It's a freehold property. Mortgage was paid off last year but the bank forgot to release the charge, but they have now done so. Bank have sent me all the papers today and a new extract of the register showing charge released. It was a new build 15 years ago and we bought off plan having reviewed all the covenants and restrictions. What are office copies? Land Registry have consistently said to me that it would be really easy to complete forms. So I was hopeful at last I could not have to pay more legal fees. Mine have been over £50k to date.

bump.

Just has another very useful conversation with Land registry. I hadn't realised I counted as a transferor as well, so do need to complete form for me as transferor and transferee!

Still confused about office copies.

Office copies are simply the official copy of the register and title plan. You can apply for those as detailed here

Though it sounds like the bank have already sent you some.

I've recently done the reverse of what you're doing, added my DH to the title. Its weird to be both transferrer and transferee isn't it.

Land registry were great over the phone, the only legal fees needed were for verification of who we were, which needed to be done by a solicitor but its normally around £20 not the £300 they wanted to do the form.

Once the forms were sent off we had confirmation within a few days and I was sent a form to sign to confirm I had made the application and if I signed and returned transfer would complete, if i didn't return it would be x weeks or I could object within the x weeks.

Just to add that if you need your ID checked for anti-money laundering purposes, the Post Office offer this service for £7, which not many people know about.

I would also expect that a local conveyancing solicitor would give you a flat fee for a discrete task like effecting the transfer and I would be surprised if this was high unless there genuinely are serious issues. And if there were serious issues, it would be worth while finding the money to have them sorted out properly rather than potentially have big problems down the line.