Application - Amendment of lease plan

Hello
Our Solicitor submitted an an expedited application on 12 December regarding an error in our lease plan referring to the property being ground floor when it is in fact first floor.

Please can you advise when this will be looked at? The purchase of our new home is dependent on the sale of our current property (first floor flat) and the delay this is causing is causing issues.

We await hearing from you on rectifying this. The OCE registers also need the landlord's title registers to be updated also as they too refer to the property being a ground floor flat.

Please help.

Thanks
Emily

Hello Emily - Can you give me the title number or our reference number for the application.  If you do not have that then please provide me the property address together with the name of the solicitor's firm. 

Hi Nimish

Thanks so much for your speedy response.

 Property address is Flat 3 36 Park Gate Park Street Al2 2PT

 Solicitor is Marco from A F Barker & Co Solicitors

Essentially it's a first floor flat (1 of 4, 2 up 2 down) but the lease plan has it listed as a ground floor but it is clearly a first floor and our buyers solicitors are asking for the lease plan to be amended.

Thanks again and look forward to your response

Emily

Property address is Flat 3 36 Park Gate Park Street Al2 2pt

Solicitor is Marco  from A F Barker & Co Solicitors.

 

Hi Emily - Thank you.  I have deleted the property address for privacy reasons. 

The matter needs to be considered by one of our lawyers so the application has been referred accordingly.  How long it takes to resolve the matter will depend on what actions the lawyer instructs the caseworker to undertake. 

It may be helpful to be aware that it does not appear to be just a clerical error on the title register.  The lease plan, based on which we would registered the property, shows the property to be a ground floor flat.  The lawyer will need to consider if we would need to serve notices to your mortgage provider, the landlord, etc. and if we can amend the lease plan itself. 

The application has been expedited so it will be processed as priority, but subject to any queries that need to be resolved and additional actions we may have to take. 

I hope this is of some help. 

HD344428
 

Thanks Nimish for looking into this.  it is strange that something so clearly a first floor flat has been labelled a ground floor flat when it is so obviously not the case. Do you have any further reasoning as to how this does not appear to be a clerical error? I also wonder why for such a minor amendment would our mortgage provider need to be involved. 

As I said before The purchase of our new home is dependent on the sale of our flat and the delay this is causing is causing issues. For such a minor and quite obvious error I would suspect this wouldn't be a onerous process and the laywer too will hopefully come to the same conclusion    Do you have any timeframes on when the caseworker will provide an update to our solicitor? He too has been chasing since submitting the application given how straightforward the amendment is and the fact it is quite obviously a first floor flat and it simply is an error. 
 

Emily -  By "clerical error" I meant a typing error made by a caseworker.  It is still a clerical error, but that made outside of Land Registry. 

We register properties based on the information that is provided to us.  If the lease, which is the deed that created the extent of the property being registered, stated it was a ground floor flat then we would have no reason to question it at the time it was registered.  Also it appears that there have been various owners since then and no one appears to have raised the issue before.  

The caseworker can only provide an update to your solicitor once they have instructions from the lawyer considering the matter.  The Christmas and New Year breaks will have added some delays.  

I will make the caseworker aware of your urgency but they will not be able to shortcut any procedure that is set out by the statutes that govern us. 

Thanks Nimish. Very helpful.  I totally agree that no one has appeared to have raised it before as when we purchased it 4 years ago it was not flagged. Our buyers solicitors however have picked up on it and won't proceed until it is amended. Based on previous cases similar is there an average timeframe for such proceedings and likely next steps that we might have to take? I appreciate every case is different. 

Is one of the potential outcomes that the Laywer agrees the change can be made directly by Land Registry?

If not, what process are we looking at? We are facing pressures from our sellers so trying to be as transparent as possible with any more delays that we may face because of this.

Emily - I understand your concerns and the urgency but do not want to give you any misleading information.  It very much depends on what investigation of historical documents reveals and the lawyer decides. 

If there are queries or we need some evidence then it would depend on how soon they are resolved by your solicitor. 

If we have to notify any parties, for example the lender, landlords, etc., then we would have to give them 15 day period to object, if they wish to do so.  If they have no objection to the change then they can consent sooner and we can proceed accordingly. 

It may be best to wait till early next week.  If I can get more information then I will update you here.  

HD344428

thanks so much

hello, just wanted to check if there has been any progress on this case and if we can expect to hear from the caseworker soon?

Hello
Our solicitor received an update today confirming that a lawyer is currently reviewing the application, which will cause a delay.

Could you please advise if there are any indicative timeframes for when a decision might be communicated? This will help us set expectations with the seller’s solicitors.

Thank you,
Emily

Hello Emily - it's impossible to say anything other than asap as we have already escalated it via this forum. Asap generally means days but the really important point is the decision the lawyer then makes as that can mean more is needed or hopefully not
HD344428

Hello again Emily - we need more from the conveyancer and the casework team have contacted them this morning with the request. It should hopefully be something they can resolve quickly 
Let me know when they have and hopefully we can get the application over the finish line for both you and them
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