The Society of Licensed Conveyancers (SLC) has issued a position paper in respect of the continuing backlogs at His Majesty’s Land Registry (HMLR), which contains clear proposals on how to move forward.
SLC Chairperson, Simon Law said:
“We fully recognise that conveyancers have a very important role to play in reducing the number of unnecessary requisitions and improve the quality of their submissions. However, the delays in registration of first title, transfers of part, and complex leasehold matters go back to 2016, and it is not appropriate to conflate the two issues, except in so far as eradicating the backlog will take pressure off post completions work, which in turn will help get routine submissions right first time. These delays are causing additional costs for all parties, and we are particularly concerned that they are having a significant impact on consumers. During the continued cost of living crisis, it is particularly concerning that the backlogs are causing additional stress when consumers are trying to remortgage their properties, and are not actually registered as the proprietor.”
The Society has made three clear proposals to HMLR in respect of working together on quality of submissions, dealing with the backlog, and working more effectively with mortgage lenders in respect of registration and discharge data. The paper sets these out in greater detail. Simon added:
“We remain committed to continue working with HMLR and our members in respect of improving the situation for all parties involved.”
One Response
I have seen a Land Registry note today to say that for First Registrations, they will only be accepting original deeds from October on. So we can expect to see; a) delays with the deeds going through the postal system and then being sorted b) land registry staff refusing to pick up big complicated deeds packet containing weird and wonderfully sized deeds c) increase costs for conveyancers and therefore clients when we should be sending these first class recorded potentially even insured? d) more issues in years to come when we have realised those at the Land Registry have misplaced deeds/lost of destroyed originals/mis-scanned pages, scanned pages in black and white rather than colour etc… Utterly bonkers decision when we should be looking to upload first registrations via the portal rather than going back to post.
My opinion of the staff at the Land Registry has not changed. Due to working at home, my belief is that they are picking and choosing what they want to do to ensure that they process enough work during the day. This means that those freehold matters with no restrictions and no mortgages get priority. Where as the Land Registry in my opinion should be working through their case load based on when AP1’s are received. I have even heard that what should be straight forward matters (i.e. probate cases) are deemed complicated and submitted to a senior caseworker which is ludicrous. Staff at the Land Registry seem incapable at times of dealing with matters that are not the norm. I have even received a requisition in the not so recent past for a SDLT certificate on a transfer for no value…
The Land Registry has no right to blame any other people for delays whilst their own house is a mess.