House purchase - solicitors stalemate - what to do?

[vegetablelasagne]

Hi,

 

I'm currently buying a house and my solicitors and the vendors solicitors have reached a disagreement over the validity of the contents of the root document needed to register the property once I've bought it.

Neither are happy to budge on their opinion and my mortgage offer runs out in 2 months - I've reached a stalemate and am running out of time.

 

I don't suppose anyone on here knows any solicitors that deal with this kind of thing and are able to confirm whether or not the information on the root document is sufficient?

If it is, I am able to switch solicitors and continue with the purchase with the current documents.

 

Many, many thanks in advance.

[honeybee13]

Hi.

 

We don't recommend solicitors on CAG, I'm afraid.

 

Can you tell us more about the root document please? What's the problem about registering your purchase?

 

HB

[AndyOrch]

Topic moved to General Legal Issues Forum. Please continue to post here

 

Root of title

This is the deed to which title to a property is ultimately traced to prove that the owner has good title. It applies only in relation to unregistered land. Under the open contract rules, which govern the deduction of title in the Law of Property Act 1925 (LPA 1925), the seller is required to give evidence of title starting with a "good root of title" at least 15 years old (section 44, LPA 1925). If the land is to be registered at the Land Registry with title absolute, a good root of title and an unbroken chain of ownership is required.

To be a good root of title, a document must satisfy each of the following requirements:

• It must deal with or show the ownership of the whole legal and equitable interest in the land in question.
• It must contain a recognisable description of the property.
• It must not contain anything that casts any doubt on the title.

   

  https://www.qlts.co.uk/images/pdf/property-unregsitered-land.pdf

   

  Andy

 

 

[theberengersniper]

I'm the farthest thing from a legal expert that you'll come across, take my suggestion with that in mind, but would it be possible to approach the seller's solicitor and ask them to put pen to paper guaranteeing the document is compliant?

Your solicitor is, after all, working under your instruction, if you could gain some sort of confidence, possibly by way of written guarantee, then you might feel confident enough to instruct your solicitor to move forward.

That doesn't help you if the document turns out not to be compliant, but it may at least give you some form of recourse.

Note to CAG experts:

If this is just silly then please go ahead and get rid of this post, I don't want to confuse things.

[Homer67]

Tell your solicitor to send a letter to their solicitor saying unless they resolve this by 5pm on xx date your offer will be withdrawn and you will look elsewhere.

 

I bet it gets sorted then.

[AndyOrch]

 Quite...I once did that, once they know their fee is in jeopardy...they soon resolve matters. I mean surely a conveyancing solicitor wouldn't create problems which involves further letter writing and bills...would they ?