Can I remortgage when title is not yet updated on land registry?

Hi Mike,

I has always been quite common for this work to sit on solicitors desk for some time.

I would go back to the same solicitor and explain the situation and they should be able to assist with confirming what is required to allow you to remortgage.

In fairness due to cuts there have been long delays at the LR (probably exaggerated by solicitors!)

Lenders would not be happy with a remortgage without the title being registered.

The solicitor is the bad apple here; land registry problems or not, 6 months is not acceptable. Make a nuisance of yourself and ask for updates frequently. The loudest squeaks get the oil first!

Don't condemn the Lawyer without the full knowledge. The Land Registry have a backlog . Unless it is a straightforward matter expect long delays. If it was a first registration .i.e a new build or a purchase of just part of an existing title you will have to wait and I doubt if any lawyers will act until your registration has been completed. Phone the Land Registry and ask when was your application received. Ask your Solicitor when did they submit your application . It is simply NOT common for application to sit on Solicitors desks , they need to get them in quickly because their priority search will expire. It may be that your Solicitor has submitted your application late because of other reasons

John Pettman

A new lender will definitely not allow you to complete on a remortgage until the purchase has been registered.

As John says, you need to phone Land Registry and confirm it's been received first of all. Explain that you are in the process of remortgaging the property and therefore you need to request a rush on the registration. Your previous solicitor may have to do this for you, or in fact your new solicitor if you have progressed to an offer and instructed someone to act on your new remortgage.

Have them confirm there isn't an actual problem with the paperwork which is preventing the registration also as something like this may take longer to resolve.

I've had a solicitor fail to register a title split before which was a mandatory stipulation by the lender, but once I'd flagged it up (12 months later) they were fairly quick at resolving it.

In my recent experience Land Registry have been extremely obliging in sorting out issues when there has been a remortgage pending. We recently remortgaged a commercial property which had three expired charges still registered over it from a former commercial tenant of the previous owner and the new lender insisted they all be removed prior to completion. This wasn't flagged up until the 11th hour with the mortgage offer due to expire in a matter of days and between the solicitor and the Land Registry they got it all sorted for us with a day to spare!

Why don't you just ask a lender?

I have had this problem before. LR are extremely slow to register new builds (around 6 months) and this means, with no registration, no mainstream lender will lend on it (basically a lender lends on the Title of a property not the actual property itself).

A bridging lender may take a different commercial decision on this.

I found LR phone line very helpful so try that as previously suggested.

I am a conveyancing solicitor. There is definitely a backlog at the Land Registry. I have one application submitted in mid May that is still being dealt with. Another that was submitted at the start of June was registered only last week.

Mike have you asked the solicitor when the application was submitted? The solicitor should have submitted it within the Land Registry search priority period (6 weeks from search date). If there was an unreasonable delay I suggest you ask for an explanation before saying the solicitor "did a bad job ". John Constant, how can you possibly say the solicitor is a "bad apple" without knowing the facts?

Mike, you should ask your solicitor to ask the Land Registry to "expedite" the application because the delay is holding up a re-mortgage. At the very least the Land Registry should get round to dealing with the matter within 14 days. Of course they may then raise requisitions (questions that need to be dealt with before registration is concluded) which can cause further delay but the solicitor should be able to deal with those quickly.

Fast forward to October 2022 still delays at LR. I bought an auction property end of March 2022 and still not registered. I had an eviction court hearing adjourned for 28 days due to lack of proof of ownership. My conveyancer requested expedition with the accompanying court papers and they’ve said 10 working days. Leaves it tight though because I have to file with the court no less than 7 days before rescheduled hearing.