Hello! After what feels like forever and has been bothering me since we completed on 1 May 2020…we have finally heard that our Land Registry application is complete! I think we can now finally say everything relating to our first home purchase is done!
What is the HM Land Registry?
The HM Land Registry is a government department responsible for registering the ownership of land and property in England and Wales.
It records changes in ownership, mortgages or leases that relate to property or land.
Why is the Land Registry Application important?
According to the HM Land Registry website, registering the land or property is important as it:
- gives you proof of ownership
- helps protect your land from fraud
- makes it easier to change, sell or give your property away in the future
For more information, see their webpage on Registering land or property with HM Land Registry.
I thought it might be helpful to share our experience!
It took 2 years and 3 months for our Land Registry application to be completed. Why did it take so long? We were told that the HM Land Registry was facing delays because there was a backlog and then further delays due to measures put in as a result of COVID-19.
There was an added complication as there was a Head Lease which needed to be registered before individual properties could be registered. The Head Lease was only registered in July 2021 (this was also an expedited application). It was a further year before our application was complete!
We were thinking about remortgaging and so I called a mortgage advisor to understand the impact on remortgaging if the Land Registry application was not yet complete. The feedback that we received was that it might be difficult to remortgage with a different lender and to contact our solicitor for more information.
By this point, our original solicitor had left the firm! The Paralegal informed us that we would need to prove ownership as part of the remortgage process which is why we needed the property to be registered at the Land Registry.
This was stressful for us because we would miss out on cheaper mortgage deals if we had to stay with our current lender.
Tip: If you are in a similar position, you can ask your solicitor if there’s some mitigating action that can be taken which could allow you to remortgage with a different lender. The advice we were given was to speak with the lender to see if they accept a TR1 to prove ownership and if yes, the solicitors can carry out the remortgage.
We also tried to contact the HM Land Registry directly for an update. Your solicitor can provide a screenshot of the Application Enquiry on the HM Land Registry portal and it has the following details:
- Title number
- HM Land Registry Reference
- Application Type
- Property Description
- Lodged by
- Customer Reference
- Application received by
- Application progress
I also tried to contact the HM Land Registry directly via the online form. I wanted an update on our application and the form asks you to provide the title number and the HM Land Registry Reference (optional) so it was helpful to have the screenshot of the application enquiry. We didn't hear back but then life got quite busy and we didn't have time to follow up. There is also a phone number you can call too!
Tip: To speed things up, the solicitors can ask for an expedite request on the basis of ‘impacting another application’. In our case, this is because we are looking to refinance so a delay in the application would impact our remortgage application.
Our solicitors wrote to the Land Registry asking for an expedite request in mid April 2022 to help speed up the application. About two weeks later, the solicitor reached out to confirm that the expedition request had been approved. Thankfully, there was no extra cost incurred to apply for the expedite request.
According to the HM Land Registry website, “the majority of all expedited applications are processed within 10 working days” but our application still took a further three months!
Once the application was completed, the solicitor sent across a copy of the Official Copy of Register of Title and the Official Copy of Title Plan. The title plan shows the general boundaries of the property.
In the Official Copy of Register of Title, we can see our names have been added as Proprietors and the price we paid for the property.
In the Charges Register section, it details the bank we used for our mortgage.
If you are looking for an update on the processing times for the HM Land Registry, I found some information on their website, with timelines correct as at July 22 here. Most complex applications such as first registrations are completed in just over 13 months. Over half of the complex applications are completed in just under 10 months.
Hope this was useful!
Jess
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