Amending property details at Land Registry - how long?

[Dave2P]

I'd be immensely grateful for any comment from our learned friends on this, prior to instructing our solicitor (either to act, or not!). Thank you in advance.

In the process of selling my late father's house, as Executor, and we have the following (presumably not that unusual) situation;

The house is ~100 years old and was originally the only house on the road, with an address like;

- <house name>, <the road>, OldVillage.

As the house has not changed hands since the late-60s, that's what's on the land registry records and title deed.

In the mid-70s an estate was built around it and a number assigned to the postal address as houses were added up and down the road. At the same time, it appears that the road became part of a neighbouring town. So the postal address became;

- 123, <the road>, NewerTown.

The postcode stayed the same, and letters using either address (or a combination of the two) have always been delivered without issue.


It's now 10 weeks since we agreed a price with a potential buyer and their solicitor is suddenly demanding that the land registry records/deeds be updated to align with the postal address.

Beyond being mildly irritated that they didn't request this sooner (they seem to be drip-feeding questions one at a time and generally stringing things out), I'd like to know;

- Is this strictly/legally necessary for it to be done before sale?
- How long will an amendment to the title take? (our solicitor says "a few days", various pages on the Interweb say "3 weeks" or even "3 months")
- Likely fees? (I think £40 if I'm reading the Land Registry pages correctly).

Advice gratefully received - I don't sell houses very often...

[OutInTheShed]

The Land Registry are slow useless bds.
But your buyers are playing for time.

Tell them you're looking at other buyers if they don't pull their finger out.

[Busa mav]

Expect 10/12 weeks with land registry.

[knight]

I'm currently changing my parents old house into my name with the Land Registry, everything was passed to them in the middle of October and I'm still waiting.

[Dave2P]

Thanks all, that's pretty much what I expected. Having lost one buyer, due to waiting 5 months for someone to tick a box on our Probate application, I'm not keen to risk losing another (assuming they are actually proceedable, and not playing for time).

Cheers!

ETA, a bit more searching found the following on gov web pages;

"Over half of the remaining applications to update the register, such as changing a name or transferring a property title, take 7 weeks to complete, with most completed in about 4 months. We know that in some instances these applications are taking about 6 months to complete."
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hm-land-registry-proce...

and

"Routine ownership, mortgage and other changes to existing registered titles

Your application will be completed within:
Earliest 1 day
Average 2 to 25 days
Almost all 6 to 12 weeks"
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hm-land-registry-estim...

Edited by Dave2P on Thursday 4th January 08:17

[Hookyman]

Slightly different, but we have purchased a similar house, not on the Registry. Didn’t stop us purchasing it, but the Land Registry took just over 18months to sort everything out.

[MrBen.911]

Sounds like the purchaser's solicitors are being very cautious (which I guess is what you would want them to be as the purchaser), but they may be holding things up where the actual purchasers would not be so bothered - can you talk to them direct or via agents to get their own view? Would some kind of defective title insurance policy get things over the line, if they are still stuck on it?

[Jobbo]

I submitted an application to the Land Registry to update a client's address for service almost exactly 3 months ago. That used to be turned around within a day. It's still showing as yet to be processed. So really don't expect it to be sorted out quickly.

However, it's completely unnecessary to alter the address. It was correct when registered and what defines the property is the plan and title number, so I'd tell the buyer that you won't do it and it's up to them to deal with following completion to the extent that they want to do so.

[Dave2P]

Jobbo said:

However, it's completely unnecessary to alter the address. It was correct when registered and what defines the property is the plan and title number,

Thank you! That's exactly what I thought/think so I don't understand the request tbh.

So far, in queries spaced about 3 weeks apart since accepting their offer, we've had "you must provide an indemnity, at your cost, to cover any planning issues regarding the conservatory" ("No. It's 60 years old, as you know"), followed by the title change request, and now "please immediately provide planning documentation regarding the extension" ("No. It was extended 60-80 years ago. There is no documentation").

They're playing for time and/or inflating costs. Time to set a deadline I think.

[E-bmw]

Dave2P said:

So far, in queries spaced about 3 weeks apart since accepting their offer, we've had "you must provide an indemnity, at your cost, to cover any planning issues regarding the conservatory" ("No. It's 60 years old, as you know"), followed by the title change request, and now "please immediately provide planning documentation regarding the extension" ("No. It was extended 60-80 years ago. There is no documentation").

Wife had a similar one when selling her house when we moved out.

Provide all planning applications for the conservatory.

The conservatory didn't need planning & was all dealt with by previous owner over 15 years before hand.

Even when presented with evidence that planning was not required they would not move on until we did an indemnity insurance on it.

They were utter feckwits, like all are.

I sold my house, utter feckwit who I spent weeks chasing on a daily basis for everything that needed doing.

Wife sold her house, utter feckwit who she needed to chase on a daily basis for everything.

We bought present house, utter feckwit who we needed to chase on a daily basis for everything & kept us waiting 6 hours on the doorstep when we sent the money the night before!!!!!!

I haven't come across one of them worth giving money to in around 8 house moves in my lifetime.

Certainly not one who I think actually earned their money.