Normal for solicitor to not send title deeds to bank?

I'm trying to change mortgage providers at the moment. Have loan offer etc but my solicitor (not the one we used to buy house) is having trouble getting the title deeds.

It seems my original solicitor never sent title deeds to my current lender. My current lender have sent two letters to my to them asking for them but no response or title deeds showing up.

My current solicitor has asked me to contact old solicitor regarding this but I've rang twice and can't get a call back. This is a time sensitive issue as I've to draw down by mid July to get Avants 1.95 rate.

My question is, is it typical for a solicitor to not send deeds to bank and more importantly, how do I get this to happen quickly as deeds need to pass from old solicitor to bank and bank to new solicitor and neither institution is known for being efficient?

The Solicitor in failing to furnish the Deeds to the bank which has a charge over a property is in breach of the Solicitor’s undertaking to the bank and is a serious breach. So it’s not normal for a Solicitor not to send deed to the bank and highly irregular.

Write yourself to your old Solicitor giving them 7 days to explain where the Deeds are, and if not with the Bank, to lodge them immediately. If you don’t receive a satisfactory response, lodge a complaint with LSRA.

Johnno75 said:

Write yourself to your old Solicitor giving them 7 days to explain where the Deeds are, and if not with the Bank, to lodge them immediately. If you don’t receive a satisfactory response, lodge a complaint with LSRA.

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And do this by registered post as well.

House was bought in Dec 19, I assume there's some time allowed but 2.5 years is a bit long in the tooth.

If this stops my mortgage switch can I get compensation?

fungie20 said:

House was bought in Dec 19, I assume there's some time allowed but 2.5 years is a bit long in the tooth.

If this stops my mortgage switch can I get compensation?

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The deeds should have been lodged immediately after the sale closed.

You can sue the Solicitor but would have to demonstrate loss.

Johnno75 said:

The deeds should have been lodged immediately after the sale closed.

You can sue the Solicitor but would have to demonstrate loss.

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It would be pretty easy to demonstrate loss. It's the difference in interest rate.

fungie20 said:

It would be pretty easy to demonstrate loss. It's the difference in interest rate.

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The focus now should be to ascertain where the deeds are and get them to the bank.

Regrettably, 2.5 years is not at all unusual. On a review of outstanding undertakings I recently noted that papers which we lodged in the Land Registry in 2016 (and several reminder letters later) are still marked as awaiting attention. Your new solicitor should be able to check online as to the status of your registration. Your old solicitor may well be at fault, but on the information given, the rush to convict seems hasty. If you must complain, just complain about the failure to reply to your enquiry.

Are they not obligated to send deeds to bank in a timely manner though? Just because others are slow doesn't make it acceptable. I paid for the service and they didn't complete all the work, now it's directly effecting me and could cost me thousands of euro.

fungie20 said:

Are they not obligated to send deeds to bank in a timely manner though? Just because others are slow doesn't make it acceptable. I paid for the service and they didn't complete all the work, now it's directly effecting me and could cost me thousands of euro.

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They cannot send the deeds if they don't yet have a completed registration. The delay may be theirs (and culpable) or it may be a delay in the Land Registry, for which your solicitor is not culpable. It may also be an issue with a third party (for example there could be an outstanding undertaking from the solicitor for the seller). Based on the limited info, I really cannot say. But certainly, delay by others does not make the solicitor culpable.

I was in a case similar to what MOB described:
2018 Bought House with mortgage from Bank1
2019 Engaged new solicitor to handle switch to Bank2. New solicitor reports Bank1 never received deeds from old solicitor. Reengaged old solicitor and found deeds had to be sent to PRAI for registration. A few months pass and we are asked to fill "Form 1" with for PRAI.
2020 Covid hits shutting down PRAI for a while. We eventually got confirmation that deeds had been sent to Bank1 who could then send to new solicitor ahead of switch to Bank2.
Overall it was about 14 months between when we got notification that Bank1 never received deeds and the notification that Bank1 had finally received them. Covid would only account for a few months of this.

Actually a Form 1 while not exactly rare, is relatively uncommon. ( It means you had a Registry of Deeds title which had to be registered in Land Registry and not on the more commonplace Form 3).

However, delays can arise even with relatively ordinary 'bog standard' title registration applications. The delay in getting it lodged was a delay by your first solicitor. Everything else was par for the course.