House not on land registry- delays?

[TeaChocKitKat]

I've had an offer accepted on a house, still all very early stages and my mortgage application was submitted today.
I was intrigued to find out exactly how old the house is so had a look on the land registry website. All of the other houses on the street are registered but not the one I'm buying.
I am chain free and the idea of it causing a delay of a few weeks doesn't bother me (in fact having another couple of pay days before completion would help a little) but my mortgage advisor seemed to think that this could add months to the likely completion date.
Does anyone have any experience of this? Also, presumably the vendor has to sort everything out with the land registry before the sale rather than the buyer?
Grateful for any advice! Thanks 😊

My house wasnt registered either. If I remeber rightly took a few more weeks and cost a little bit more as it was a first registration but wasnt a big deal for us

The pp was lucky the land registry themselves say it takes 6 months to a year.

and yes the current owner should do it.

How old is the property/do you know when it was last sold? Has your solicitor said it's unregistered or you just can't find it on land registry?

I sold my Mums house last year, she'd lived there 65 years and it had never been put on the Land Registry.

It was a bit of a nightmare as two neighbours attempted land grabs, sorted by the solicitor fairly easily as neighbours had only recently moved in and the boundaries in question were well documented.

But the land registry itself has massive backlogs, we expedited it again through the solicitor as needed the funds for Mums care home but I believe you can also request this if mortgage lending is at risk.

We started the process in June 21 and received the documents around six months later.

I believe I can take up to a year.

The seller doesn't have to register the title. You will buy it as an unregistered title, still happens, then register on completion. Very straightforward for any solicitor worth their salt.

This is just not true. An unregistered title is just as easy to sell as a registered one.

The seller doesn’t arrange registration, that is for the buyer’s solicitors to do. It’s a pain and not so common these days, but there are still unregistered properties out there if they were bought long enough ago and the owners never moved/triggered first registration.

There are delays of many months at the Land Registry but that is nothing to do with the property not being registered (unless the seller IS in the process of first registration but I have no idea why they would want to do this (it’s costly and covered by the Land Registry fee when the buyer sends in the application to register the property in their name). It won’t benefit them at all and could delay a sale. It’s totally unnecessary.

Funnily enough, I sent two LR applications in yesterday to register restrictions on two titles and they were back within the hour. I have the same type of application on another title I sent in two months ago I’m still waiting for them to complete.

It shouldn't add much more complexity provided you have a half decent lawyer (don't use a bulk conveyancing chain)

Interesting mix of responses. According to the LR website there are no documents available for the property.
I know it was an elderly person who lived there who has died and the house is being sold by their daughter. Looking on rightmove and judging by the decor etc. , it looks as if it has had the same owner for a very long time.

Ask your lawyer, the one handling your purchase.

I'd double check that, I saw a property last year where the buyer had pulled out because of the unregistered title. I don't know how common this is.

Going the other way to have it registered may not be possible and the LR is very slow at the moment.

It's pretty normal under those circumstances. When dad died 12 years ago I registered my parents' house in order to transfer the title to mum (bought in 1964, no mortgage since 1979 so they'd missed all the obligations to register). It took ages and was dull work but it was pretty straightforward (IANAL). But yes, if your solicitor will do it go for that.

This happened to us recently (selling DH's parents' house - they'd lived there for 50-odd years) and the delay was minimal, just a couple of weeks.

I'm a conveyancer. Registration can take ages but that's after you buy it doesn't delay completion and as pp said it's no problem for any decent professional in the area.

Problems only arise if seller does not have good evidence of ownership but that's unusual and should be flagged early by your solicitor

Interesting, I wish we hadn't had to register as sellers but it was presented as unsaleable at the best price without it.

@stayathomegardener you do find a fair number of conveyancers.(and I guess estate agents ) who don't want to go near unregistered land.

But I reality it really shouldn't be any more daunting than registered land. I cut my teeth on unregistered land as a trainee as my firm acted for several clients who owned vast amounts of unregistered land (and this was only 15 years ago). There's still quite a bit of unregistered land about too, particularly in rural areas.

Absolutely. Even easier if it's in a built up area as all the houses around it will already be registered so the only plot left will be clear to see. And if it's been owned by the same person for 60 years there's your good root of title. Nothing to fear. Won't take any longer in any way.