Land Registry delay in registering title

Bronte

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My mother has received a letter from her solicitor that states that the property she purchased 9 years ago has resulted in some questions from the land registry. The delay is because it is apparently a first registration. It's in a town.

Is it possible to have taken 9 years for the land registry to get back with questions? If she paid the costs for the transfer does she have to pay again now for the answering of these questions?

Quite incredibly there are 23 questions from the Land registry, is this normal ? She doesn't have to answer all of them, apparently the solicitor for the vendor will know some of the answers. But this will be a cost I assume to this solicitor? One of the questions is who owns the property around her. She has an idea of some of them but just an idea. Who ever knows for sure. For example we know one side is owned by a lady who inherited from her dead husband (no will) but he acquired it with a piece of paper and title is being sorted out. The back of the garden could have any amount of owners and she does not know who they are etc. Why does the Land registry need such detail? Some of the questions are in bold type, does that mean they are more important?
 
First Registrations are usually lengthy and complicated. I've never seen a case where it took 9 years to get the first queries from the land registry but that doesnt mean it can't happen.

Typically in a First Registration it could take a couple of years before one would hear from the PRAI or land registry. It would then be quite common for the queries to take the form of a long letter with two or three pages of questions. One of the most common queries is the names of all adjoining owners. They may be served with a notice from the PRAI asking if they object to the application.

It could mean that the solicitor delayed in lodging the application or it could mean that this particular case became unusually delayed or it could mean that there was more work for the solicitor before they could lodge so they had to do that first before lodging. If it is important to know why it took so long then it is easy enough to find out the date of lodging for registration by the solicitor- or just ask them why it took so long. They should be upfront if the fault was at their end. At the end of the day the important thing now is to perfect your mother's title.

As for cost- if your mother was already billed for the first registrationa and paid it, she shouldn't have to pay again. She may have to pay any additional outlays such as search fees, if the land registry have requested these and she hasnt already been billed for them.

As for whether the queries in bold are more important, I just don't know off hand, although I do these all the time!
 
Thanks for your comprehensive answer on this Vanilla. The questions are indeed 3 pages long. I've spoken to the solicitor, file forgotton about basically (boom times in Irel. Inc.) and gathered dust but there will be no fee as the transfer was paid for at the time. Now we're going to try and answer some of the questions...........
 
I spoke with someone in the land regisrty about my own site yesterday .... she was advising me to push my solicitor to lodge my file asap so that it would be legally mine once they receive it. She told me that that a solicitor had just lodged a file in which the stamp duty was paid for in 2001 ... meaning it had sat on the solicitor's desk for 8 years!!!
 
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