Mortguage paid but Lender has not removed charge on Land Registry

I paid off my mortgage with Santander 10 years ago but discovered the charge was still registered on the Land Registry. I have not dealt with Santander since then and have no records. Santander say they cannot help me unless I give them the mortage number (I have given them name and address details) which I can't. Equally they say if the mortgage was paid off over 6 years ago they will not have any record of the mortgage. How do I resolve this "catch 22" and get the charge removed?

HI Terence - it is possible that we hold a scanned copy of the original charge which should include enough information for Santander to find it. Please complete a form OC2 to request a copy of the charge.

Thank you for this. I have completed the form, can I send by email or do I have to post? Either way what address do I need to use.

I need two documents -- what is the charge and how do I pay?

Regards Terry Waters

Terebnce - postal only - Get information about property and land: Get a copy of the deeds - GOV.UK
Cost currently £7 per copy payable by cheque/postal order to HM Land Registry. And the standard address is shown in the linked guidance. 

I received your response but you could not find any trace of the Satander document in your files and I advised Santander of this and sent a copy of the Land Registry filing and explaining the situation. However Santander simply returned everything I sent them and attached a form document with a tick box entry simply saying yet again that they cannot help me unless I provide the mortgage number. As I have said the mortgage was paid off 10 years ago and naturally I have not kept the papers. Surely for them not to have removed the charge when they were paid is a breach of regulations? 

Is the fact that you could not find any documentation a sign that the charge had been satisfied -- although why would you still be showing the charge,

It is incredilbly frustrating and any suggestions would be welcome.

Terence - I'm sorry to read that the issues remain. The fact that we cannot locate a copy does not mean that the charge has been paid off. 
We would not be privy to the regulations applied to the terms of your mortgage and what happens at Santander re their responsibilities for then removing the charge from the land register.
In the circumstances I would suggest escalating it within the Santander contact/complaint process. 

Sorry if I'm asking a silly question, but on your register there are two charges showing, the first of which is dated 2006. I requested and you sent me the details you had of that charge which identified the charge holder  to be Alliance & Leicester who provided the mortgage on my house prior to Santander. However my wife and I moved here in 2004 and would certainly have had a mortgage prior to that, probably with Abbey National yet they, or whoever did provide the mortgage, are not shown on the register. So it would seem the existence of a listing on the Land Registry does not actually mean the charge is still extant -- as in the case of the Alliance & Leicester listing. So what is it about the Santander listing that identifies it as still existing? As I say, maybe a silly question...

Terence - it's probably not a silly Q although I don't quite follow what you have said.
If the register refers to two registered legal charges then they still exist on the register
The register won't refer to historical charges that have been removed (discharged) previously
And if the registered charges now need to be removed then we need evidence as to their discharge as you have already appreciated
 

Thanks Adam. Yesterday I managed to speak to a sensible person at Santander who has complete a request form to remove the entry which should be done within 10-14 working days but I will only be advised by post(!). Am I able to access the Land Registry free of charge? On the listing regarding Alliance & Leicester this appears distinctly different from the Santander in that it does not mention the company's name. Furthermore I doubt Santander would have loaned us the money if that charge was still extant. Certainly my solicitor has not raised that entry as being a problem. Here's hoping!  Thank you for all your help..

Terence - well done for moving it forward with Santander. Initial contact is invariably a 'routine process' as they expect everything to 'fit' seamlessly with the info you have etc. But often moving it higher up as some uncertainty is the way to go.
I'm not following the other points you are making - can you share the title number perhaps so I can actually see what it is you are referring to?
Or, if you don;t want to shjare it, have you contacted us in some other way and been given a reference I can locate?

Thanks Adam -- the title no is SY131076. You'll see three items on the Charges section:

1. Original conveyance dated 08/03/1955 relating to restrictive covenants

2. Registered charge dated 18/12/2006 with filing date 11/01/2007 and no other details are shown on the Land Registry. However, I requested and you provided the supporting document which identified this was in respect to the mortgage with Alliance & Leicester which was paid off when I switched to Santander. The fact that the Land Registry show no details of the owner of that charge  presumably means it was satisfied -- yes?

3. The Santander Charge dated 08/06/2010 -- which is the one causing all the bother.

Thanks again for your interest.

 

Terence - understood. The original legal charge was with Alliance & Leicester and dated 2006. They then transferred the legal charge, along with numerous other ones on other properties, to Santander. So pursuing it with Santander is the right way to go

That's great, so I only need to worry about Santander -- thank you Adam. Trust you're off home soon as it's gone 1.00pm on Christmas Eve. Best Terry

Terence - hope you get things moving with Santander. Drop us another post in a couple of weeks time and we can check to see if they have applied to remove the charge
Merry Christmas