I completely agree with the letter from Mr Napier (17 November) regarding the cancellation of charges by mortgage lenders. 
 


I’m a great admirer of the Land Registry electronic registration service. However, I today received notice that an application had been completed only to discover that it had been registered subject to the former owner’s mortgage to a bank. This was for the very good reason that the bank has evidently failed to notify LR of the cancellation despite the fact it’s now two weeks since completion.
 


This is a ludicrous outcome. I now have to make a fresh application to register the discharge, but how on earth am I supposed to find out when the bank does finally get round to cancelling their charge? Most lenders can’t be bothered to confirm this to the seller’s conveyancer, and even if they do many conveyancers can’t be bothered to pass the information on. 
 


I’ve found this to be an increasingly serious problem, but there seems to be no obvious solution. At least the old DS1 system worked in that we waited until it was received before applying for registration. 
 


I’ve written to LR about it, suggesting that when the application clearly includes a request to cancel a charge they should not complete the registration until it’s received. But I’m afraid that in the absence of a compulsory notification procedure backed by sanctions the present fiasco will continue indefinitely.
 

 


Michael A Loveridge, Clitheroe

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