In our November newsletter we explained the Land Registry’s ‘expedite’ service and mentioned that HMLR are revamping their services to hopefully improve service levels.
In January 2023, HMLR published a useful guide about how long their services are taking. Breaking all of their services down into three areas they found for that month-
- Information services requests (e.g. searches and copies of title)
- The vast majority of these (over 90%) are dealt with within 1 day
- 5% take more than 4 days
- Changes to existing titles (e.g. changing the names of registered owners or updating a mortgage)
- 6% take just 1 day.
- 2% are processed in 1 week.
- 6% take up to a month.
- And over 1 month is needed for 31.6%.
- Register creates (mostly used by developers or for infrastructure projects)
- A whopping 55.4% take over 1 year.
- Only 9.7% take a month or less.
- 9% settle in between these times.
As you can see, the more complicated the application, the longer (generally) it will take for HMLR to deal with it. Perhaps the least predictable bracket is the second (changes to existing titles) where you could be waiting just one day or over one month! When you throw in the fact that some customer-service based parts of the Land Registry are due to go on strike between 27 February and 03 March you have to wonder how much of an impact that will have. However, HMLR point out that once your application is made, your position as a registered owner is protected, so even if there is a delay you have that safety net. Also, with the introduction of the expedite service, there is some protection from delays that may have an adverse effect on your application or transaction.
Most LFBB clients will fall into the first or second bracket, and we hope the information above is useful. However, if you are struggling at all with Land Registry processing speeds, please speak to us on 0114 272 9721 and we will look into any way we can find to speed things up.