Experience with the Land Registry?

We are in the process of selling our house. The house is on a half acre site with neighbouring houses. We are the 3rd owners, it was built in 1986 so its 33 years old, we live here 11 years. The deeds of title are in our name.

The land registry maps were digitised after we bought the house, the selling process has shown up that the site folio is still registered in the farmers name (his parents sold of 6 sites on our road, all other sites are correctly registered). Our solicitor has been in touch with the land registry and a case has been opened to rectify the error but to speed up the selling process he has issued a transfer of deeds document from the farmers name to our name.

We approached the farmer personally also and explained the error. He hasn't returned our calls but his wife did and was very understanding and said she would ask her husband to pop into his solicitor etc..

The case is opened with the land registry for over a month and nobody has even been assigned to it. The transfer documents are with the solicitor for almost 3 weeks now but no sign of any action there and my recent phone calls and texts to the farmer and his wifehave not been returned.

We are buying a new build and the contracts will be with our solicitor to sign any day now so we have to try close this sale ASAP.

Has anyone got any experience of dealing with the land registry or any advice on how we can push this on? The deeds of title are correct the error is with the land registry.

Thanks

The land registry has to write out to the registered owner of the land (as per their system, i.e., the farmer) and ask if they have any objections to the modification to their folio (explaining the error that has occurred). They have to peruse the remapping of the original site to confirm all is in order. The farmer will probable obtain legal advice from his solicitor regarding same. The land registry is the State and if the State could have any possible liability regarding the issue at hand, they also will take legal advice on same. In all, what I am saying, is that these things take time; in your favour you say that it was a simple digitising error and should be readily amendable; if this is the case and all parties are in agreement, then the process should proceed relatively fast (another 5 weeks). My advice, keep in contact with the land registry personally and through your solicitor. Get somebody assigned to the case as soon as possible, then the process will move along.

@Inquisitor Thank you for your reply you seem very knowledgeable in this area and take on board your advice of personally pursuing the land registry aswell as my solicitor.
What if the farmer does have an objection to the amendment of the folio. Can he have any legal claims on a site that has a house built on it for 30+ years where the deeds of title are in another parties name? We are by the way at this stage assuming it is a digitised mapping error as we are the third owners and engineers and solicitors have only picked this up on this sale as the maps were digitised since.

First question. Then it will take much longer to sort out, yes he can still lay a claim (whether it would be entertained by the land Registry is another story, but it will have the effect of slowing down the resolution of the issues at hand)
Second question. Simple answer, yes he can. It may be the case that the original solicitor involved in the conveyance side didn't complete title with the land registry, he may be able to rectify same or go to the other side (farmer) and get a deed of rectification signed, if he is no longer alive it gets a little more complicated but your solicitor will be able to walk you through the process. This issue should have been spotted when you were purchasing the property but that is an issue for another day. Is your property on registered or unregistered land?

@Inquisitor the deed of rectification has been drawn up for 3 weeks but so far the farmer has not taken any action. And given my attempts to contact him are being ignored then im presuming he is not going to take action.

Yes it should have been picked up when we purchased or back when the previous owners purchased as it has exchanged hands twice since the original owner.

I don't fully understand your question regarding registered or unregistered land? The site is registered with land registry hence the issue but do you mean registered elsewhere also?

Im astonished the farmer can still have a legal claim to the site when the deeds of title are in our name. Surely we cant own a house but not the land it sits on, its not leasehold?

I really appreciate your time on this, its really helping me get some clarity on the issue.
Thanks

LTL1234 said:

site folio is still registered in the farmers name (his parents sold of 6 sites on our road, all other sites are correctly registered).

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Just two observations.

This does not seem like an issue arising from the digitisation process, those usually involve boundary differences over which folio a particular piece of ground is in, this seems to be an issue around who's name is on a folio.

If his parents sold the land and his name is on the folio, that suggests a transfer took place from parents to son, after your house/plot was sold. If the parents names were still on the folio, that might just be a matter of omission, but the sons name being on it suggests an active transfer.

@cremeegg the folio is part of the farm which he inherited when his parents died, this was way before we purchased. All the folios of the farm is in his name on the land registry including our site.

This has only been spotted because the maps are now digitised so you may he correct and its not a digitised issue at all. Im beginning to think its likely the original conveyancing solicitor did not complete title with the land registry 33 years ago.

@LTL1234
To be clear, does your site have it's own folio, registered in the farmers name, or it it all just part of his larger folio?
It would be very strange to have been sold 3 times without being noticed.

@RedOnion our site has its own folio registered to the farmer at the land registry. We have title of deeds in our name.

Your solicitor that acted for you in the purchase of your property appears to have not done his/her job properly. If you bought the property with the aid of a mortgage, then your solicitor is in trouble for a breach of undertaking. Your first port of call is to contact the solicitor that acted for you in the purchase of the property. They should rectify this error at their cost. I would suggest that you do not contact the Land Registry over this where you have a solicitor acting for you also. You do not appear to be a conveyancing solicitor yourself so your direct involvement will only hamper matters.

"The deeds of title are in our name."

I think you have some paperwork in your name but not title.

"process has shown up that the site folio is still registered in the farmers name"

Herein lies the problem.

" The deeds of title are correct the error is with the land registry."

No - the problem lies with the fact that title is still in the farmers name.

"We have title of deeds in our name."

See above.

Its hard to understand how the property has been sold three times without the issue coming up?

Let your current solicitor get on with the issue of trying to work out where the error/omission occurred and trying to rectify it.

mf

@mf the title deeds for the property are 100% in our name. We used a mortgage to purchase and could not have done so without this document. I have no idea how it was not picked up over 3 sales that the folio does not match same.

Both solicitors acting on our behalf and the farmers are dealing with the situation and we are hopeful to make progess this week.

Thank you to everyone for their input & advice.