Sometimes after moving into a new house, home owners want to make structural changes to the property to make it their own. Do you have to wait to be in receipt of all the final documents for the purchase before you can make a start? Our legal experts provide their response to a question we received from a client asking just this.
Q: ‘I completed on my new home in October. Despite repeated prompts to my solicitor, I still don't have the final documents. They say they are awaiting confirmation of the seller's discharge of their mortgage, but I want to build an extension and will need these documents. How can I pressure the solicitor to speed things up?’
A: You can apply for planning permission even though there has been a delay with registration of your title to the property at the Land Registry.
On completion of the sale, the seller's solicitors should have redeemed the mortgage and requested evidence of discharge. Usually the lender writes to the seller's solicitors acknowledging receipt of the funds and confirming that an electronic discharge has been sent to the Land Registry. That written confirmation should have been sent by the seller's solicitors to your solicitor.
After completion your solicitor should have paid any stamp duty that was due and applied to register your title at the Land Registry. If the seller's mortgage has not been redeemed, your solicitor should know as the Land Registry will either cancel the application (as it cannot be processed without evidence of discharge), raise a requisition in respect of the outstanding mortgage, or register your title to the property without removing the seller's lender's charge. If the latter is the case, your solicitor should have been told. This registration process can often take several weeks, even longer in some instances, due to Land Registry delays.
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