Missing deeds-how much of a delay will this cause?

[NotAnotherUserName5]

We are ftb buying. Issue isn't with our purchase, but with our vendors purchase.
Apparently deeds are missing. How long is this likely to delay is?

We are all ready to exchange on our end.

Where is this house?

I sold a family house a few years ago that was not on the Land Registry (had not been sold for about 50 years) and the solicitor had lost the deeds.

I had to swear that the boundaries were correct, and some other stuff (luckily I had photocopies) and there was some doubt what sort of Title would be issued.

The stupid incompetent solicitors found the originals prior to sale.

(as you may know, now that (almost all) houses are on the Land Registry, the actual bits of paper are not required and are only of sentimental or historical interest)

You can look up the house on the Land Registry if you know the address. The story you've heard might or might not be true.

Is the property they are purchasing registered? If so it shouldn’t be an issue at all. If not, then it could take anything from a few days to a few months for LR to sort an application based on a statutory declaration (Land Registry time frames are v inpredictable at the moment!)

No idea where they are buying!

I'm hoping it's not a story. Although I'm growing impatient-our solicitors are being ignoring by the vendors, and estate agents say they'll get back to us, but don't.

NeverTwerkNaked-no idea! This is all I know about their purchase, that there's issues with deeds missing. No one has told us along the way until we pestered that they were having this issue.

keep looking at other houses.

PigletJohn-you think I need to?

Doesn't look good I guess! We are 10 weeks in, and have already paid our solicitors.

Did they say what was missing? I live in a flat with a missing lease! We had to surrender the lost lease and draw a new lease. It cost about £5000 to pay the freeholder and took about six months from start to finish.

KanielOutis-wow, six months?! How frustrating.

I'll be checking with my solicitors, as I don't know the details. My husband took the call, so I'll hopefully find out more when he's home. But all I know is deeds are missing.
We can't wait forever, as our mortgage offer will expire if it drags on.

If it's just a missing Conveyance from years ago, then an indemnity policy for missing deeds will suffice.

The solicitors look at the title deeds to the property and within this document, it will list other documents, for example, a Transfer dated 20th January 1945. It may be that the purchasing solicitors asked for this document and the response was that this document was not submitted to Land Registry on first registration. If this is the case, it is effectively "missing" (though of course the document may be in a previous owner's filing cabinet or held at a bank/solicitors for safe keeping many years ago, but since no-one would know about this, it would be impossible to obtain). The indemnity policy would protect the buyer from the minute possibility that someone could have any claim on the property, but obviously the older the missing document, the more unlikely that would be.

Unless you can find out from the vendor exactly what type of document is missing, it is impossible to advise you.

Agree with Spickle. 'Deeds' is a wide term that covers all manner of documents. It might be something like an 18th century contract allowing a neighbour to pick apples from a tree or it might be a sale contract for the house.

Insist that you are told exactly what 'deed' is missing and then your solicitor (or we) can advise on how long it will take to draw up a plan to replace it or protect/Insure against its loss.

I don't think you need to start looking for another house or panicking! Just get more info...

Thanks.
Been told today the property they are buying will need to have its first registration too! How long does that take?
No more info on what deeds, sadly.

First registrations do take longer because all the old deeds and documents have to be listed in an Epitome (like a contents page) in date order, with the documents tracing all the owners over the years to link the transfers/conveyances together. It is to check that the sellers are the rightful owners and have authority to sell the property. So it takes longer to draft the contracts and send copies of all the paperwork to the buyer's solicitor (they won't send originals until after completion).

When the transaction is completed, all these deeds and documents have to be posted to Land Registry rather than an online application. It means that the new owners of the property may have to wait quite a long time to be formally registered as the new owners, but since you are not the purchaser of this unregistered property, it wouldn't affect you.

We’ve just had this problem. Bank lost the deeds but the property was registered with the Land Registry thank goodness. Took a couple of months for it to be sorted.

If there is a first registration in your chain I'd say you might be in for quite a long wait I'm afraid... you might be lucky though!
A new build is quicker to register (usually) than a huge, ancient mansion...