Adverse possession application - expadited

Hello Adam, wondering if you can help.

 we are 1 Step away from completing our house purchase but this one thing is holding it up and preventing completion.
 

The house we are buying has been raised to have 30cm of land included in the garden that isn’t officially registered to the sellers however it has been in the garden since they moved in.
 

the solicitors have applied for adverse possession at the start of may and expedited the application on 24th may and made requisitions.
 

 there is still no update to this and every time I ask the solicitors they say they cant do anything and we just have to wait which I find hard to believe they can’t see a status to this.

Im getting very anxious and stressed now as the other 6 people in the chain are just waiting on this land register issue to resolve and then we can complete.
 

I don't have a reference number for this, but i was wondering if there was anyway you could chase it up for me if i could give you the land title number or the address for the piece of land in question?
 

 title number for the property/house We are purchasing:
K831426 

title number for land in question :
 K896013
 

60a binney road

me39pl
 

Really hoping you can help see where this application is stuck and give an indication to when it’s going to be completed as the frustration is getting a lot now for everyone involved.

 thanks!!

Hello Katy - the application isn't stuck as such but partially processed and now waiting for wider checks to complete. The issues (requisitions) raised with the conveyancer appear to have bene resolved but applications involving such claims also require us to carry out wider checks with neighbouring/affected landowners.
If someone is claiming land, even if only 30cm and 'it's been part of the garden since they moved in' we have to contact the registered owners to see if they agree or not. So we wrote to the neighbours on 6th June and now have to wait for them to respond.
They have 65 days to respond (6th Sept) and they essentially have 3 choices. Consent, object or don't reply. 
If they consent then it can be completed. If they object then that will need to be resolved. If they don't reply then the time has to run out and the application won't complete until shortly after 6th Sept.
The conveyancers involved should both be aware of the above and as you are buying the next steps would be for the seller's conveyancer/seller to consider contacting the neighbours at 60A, who are the registered owners of the claimed land to encourage them to respond, and hopefully they do and with their consents - it's possible of course that they are already doing so or that the neighbours intend to respond quickly of course 
K896013

This is great thank you Adam!!

However, the piece of land isn’t owned by the people who are registered at 60a (our sellers).

On the title register it is a different name but for some reason it says they are registered at 60A when in fact they are nott?

if that makes sense.

when you say neighbours, do you know which house number they’re people live at that own this strip of land?

Also what happens if the owners of this land are dead, do we still have to wait 65 days for this.

Also, If i got back to my solicitors and tell them of this information is that allowed or will i be breaking any kind of rules by asking a question and finding this information out?

Katy - we are required to serve notices on the registered owners of K896013. I referenced 60A as that's the contact address we have for them. 
There's clearly a history of sorts re the title and the one for 60A (K831426) as they were once linked. This latter one is I imagine owned by your sellers but K896013 is registered to the previous owners (Winslades) and this is in part why the problem has now arisen.
The information is available to the seller's conveyancer so you would not be breaking any kind of rules. They should be well aware of why they applied and what we are required to do re such wider checks. 
We need a response to be able to proceed matters so I would suggest speaking to your conveyancer as appropriate

 

Thank you so much Adam. 

Our solicitors are clearly keeping this information from us as we have been told a different story as to what you have just informed me. 

We are in contact with the sellers so i will speak to them too and see if they have any light on the matter. 

What happens if the previous owners ( winslades ) are deceased?

Katy - if they are deceased then I suspect the time will have to be allowed to run out. If you/the seller's are trying to be proactive re any response then the obvious route to consider is confirmation that they are deceased and whoever was appointed to deal with the estate, of which the title still forms part, is happy to provide evidence that they consent ot the change of ownership.
But again very much something to discuss with your legal rep/seller's legal rep as appropriate

Thank you so so much!!

 

Hello Adam,
I have spoke to the sellers of 60a binney road. They said they have no idea of this information and didnt even know the name of the person it was registered to. The information i gave him from you wad the first theyd heard of it. 

When i told him, he suddenly remembered getting a letter from the post man at the start of the week addressed to the Winslade's (the registered owner of the land). But as it needed to be signed for and he was not the recipient he couldn't sign for it. This meant it has been returned to the sender i guess. What do you propose to do as they clearly dont have an address for the previous owners other than what it says on the land registry but as you could see they are not the current owners of the house, only the extra piece of land. 

Thanks

I managed to track down the Winslade's on facebook and he has confirmed its his dad that owned the property. He said he is going to get his dads number and give it to me. 

If i speak to himnd he consents to us having that land, who is it that i need to contact? is it my solicitors or the land registry?

Really hoping you can help Adam as currently we are just sat in the dark about what to do about this all.

Please can you reply to my comment Adam. 

Thank you so much

Katy - you would put it in the hands of your solicitor first to confirm what options exist and how to then handle matters with regards the notices as served on Mr & Mrs Winslade.

Hello,
I have had confirmation that the sellers solicitors has contacted the Winslades in the hope to get him to consent to the land being in the sellers names in order to move forward with the completion. 

Can you confirm the status of the application please.
 

 title number for the property/house We are purchasing:
K831426 

title number for land in question :
 K896013
 

60a binney road

me39pl

 

Hello - We have not had any response as yet. 

Hello - Has there been any update to this?
 

Hello Katy - we are now at the final stage, which is completing wider checks and the lodging conveyancer is aware as of 6th June. Those wider checks rely on responses from the registered owners and they have until 6th Sept to respond

Just to let you know we have confirmation from the registered owners that he is currently doing the id verification and completing TR1 so hopefully this can complete once he has done so.

thanks for checking for me :)