Last enquiries STILL not answered SO ANNOYED

[Bumpandus]

I am FTB buying an empty property. Everything is signed and back apart from 2 enquiries. These enquiries were raised 6 weeks ago when the searches returned. It’s been 3 months since our offer on the house got accepted.

I am absolutely terrified that the vendor is going to pull out because his solicitor is asking for a completion date and my solicitor is refusing to give a date until the last 2 are answered this has been going on for weeks now.

I am constantly on the phone to the estate agent and my sol but getting no where. If I can move before end of the month I don’t need to pay rent after then too so I really want to be in in the next two weeks can anyone give me advise???

I am fed up.....

Do you know what the issues are ? It may be empty but is it part of a chain ?

@Pickpick101 no chain. I am FTB and vendor is selling his parents properly. Probate is sorted.

Are they issues you are concerned about or can you instruct your solicitor to let it go and set the date?

Depends on the issues, presumably they are substantial and not a pleasant answer if a) you're holding out until you get answers and b) the seller doesn't want to give you the answers!

What are the questions that they haven't answered?

If they are queries off the back of the search results then I would be tempted to see what they are and chase the relevant depts. at the Local authority myself via email. Lay on thick the fact that the sale will possibly collapse my team complete searches and we are genuinely keen to help when asked. My first step once you see what these follow up queries are is to email the Land Charges manager. It can be difficult to pin colleagues down but that's my advice.

The questions are:

• We note the office copy entries refer to a Transfer dated 15th July 1952. Is this an error and should be referring to the Transfer 15th July 2002 If so please amend the register at the Land Registry If not, please provide the 1952 Transfer Deed.

• We note the 2002 Transfer refers to a contribution towards communal facilities, If so please confirm the amount If not, please obtain confirmation from the Local Authority this is not collected.

I am getting a mortgage so don’t think it’s up to me to let enquiries go unanswered

@taczilla read above cheers

@CrotchetyQuaver read above

Could they be waiting for Land Registry? There are delays with them at the moment.

It’s very frustrating but your vendor won’t want an empty house for any longer than necessary so try and relax

We contacted our vendor via Facebook to get him to chase his solicitors and it worked a treat.

He was very grateful we messaged him (we apologised profusely for the stalkery- ness)

Our mortgage offer was about to run out and we were hitting a brick wall at the time. So stressful.

Looks like land registry (government body not local I'm afraid.)

According to estate agent he is as annoyed as me and doesn’t understand why they are saying they have answered all when they clearly haven’t. I’ve offered my number to him but haven’t gotten anywhere... should I message him on Facebook? Or is that weird? Lol! @Purglewurgle how long did it take after you message them direct?

@taczilla so why taking so long? I need to be out of my current home by end of this month

@Bumpandus yes hunt him down on Facebook and message him!

Happened very fast for us. I think 2 weeks to complete after the FB message. he replied straight away, he complained to his own solicitors, they apologised and finished the enquiries and then we exchanged/ completed on the same day.

An empty property is a liability - he’ll want it completed and gone! Good luck!

@Purglewurgle hi I’ve messaged him let’s see what happens!

Keep us up to date! Good luck

@Purglewurgle it’s doing that thing where it hasn’t been received so it’s probably in his message requests this could never be sent to him lol god sake!!

I think you need to talk direct to him, it sounds like the issue is at Land Registry. The original 1952 document is almost certainly destroyed now since the property is "registered" (by which I mean it's with Land Registry rather than being a bundle of property deeds which is how it used to be done. When I sold a house in 1999 all the old paper deeds were sent to me as they were irrelevant at that point. Originally the mortgagors held them as security until you'd paid them back.

I guess Land registry made an error but that needs acknowledging and the title document amending.

What about putting a note through the door at the house?

These aren't things he can deal with quickly. It needs the land registry/local authority to sort them. Your solicitor should have told you this.

I know about issues with the Land Registry only too well after a beyond horrific house move in 2018/19!

You can find out a lot of answers directly from the Land Registry. When things aren't moving as quickly as you wish you can take matters into your own hands and try to answer the questions yourself!

Have you downloaded all the information about the property off the Land Registry website yourself? It costs about £3.00 and the answer to your question may be there. Otherwise when I was moving there was a forum where you could post your question and the Land Registry would answer it in an hour or so. I'm desperately trying to find the link for you but it was definitely a part of this website eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/eservices/FindAProperty/view/Info.do?page=solving_one&id=p_problems_link

Have you called the Land Registry yourself and asked? Again, they are quite helpful on the phone.

In the end, my move was going so slowly (32 weeks in total!) I ended up doing the bulk of the conveyancing myself. I found that it was pretty easy to find anything that the solicitor was looking for with a good hunt online! I know that you're paying the solicitor to do it, but if it's speed you're after...

Ah, the question and answer area was here: support.landregistry.gov.uk but it 'no longer exists' - I'd still contact them though!

Was that the coach House that was split up ?

@CrotchetyQuaver

I think you need to talk direct to him, it sounds like the issue is at Land Registry. The original 1952 document is almost certainly destroyed now since the property is "registered" (by which I mean it's with Land Registry rather than being a bundle of property deeds which is how it used to be done. When I sold a house in 1999 all the old paper deeds were sent to me as they were irrelevant at that point. Originally the mortgagors held them as security until you'd paid them back. I guess Land registry made an error but that needs acknowledging and the title document amending.

@CrotchetyQuaver will this take a long time? Why are they not doing this already or does it really take weeks to get this done? Also he doesn’t live there so I couldn’t put a note through hopefully he will reply via Facebook tonight