Hi all,
I have recently been using a website to monitor the land registry figures for recent sales of houses in my area. Over time it struck me that although lots of properties we're coming up on rightmove/findaproperty as sold (or at least sstc), they only rarely seemed to appear on the land registry figures with the actual sold price.
I found this both perplexing and highly frustrating (asking prices are only half the story of what represents value as they are often highly inflated I'd say). At first I thought it might simply be a website delay in updating the figures but then a house opposite mine sold and was on the site virtually immediately (ie. indicating that the site is kept up to date regularly once sales have completed).
Then I thought it may have been a lack of ability to complete transactions but I'm now wondering about this as well as I know of some sales which have definitely completed but are not on the LR figures.
After speaking to my cousin she told me that as far as she is aware it is not always simply a case of the sale going through and the figures being published from the LR. Apparently its not unusual for solicitors handling sales to delay providing the figures or to not register them at all? Can this really be the case? It would certainly explain a lot. It would also call into question this rather contradictory statement on the directgov website extracted below.....(Hang on, all land sold must be registered - yet around a third remains unregistered??? Well waht are they doing about it if it's compulsory?)
'What is Land Registry?
Land Registry is the government department responsible for registering land in England and Wales. All land that is bought, sold or mortgaged must be registered. However, about a third of the land in England and Wales currently remains unregistered.'
Hang on, all land sold must be registered - yet around a third remains unregistered??? Well waht are they doing about it if it's compulsory? |