Despite the challenges of Lockdown and Covid over the last few years, the property market has been exceptionally strong, mainly due to the need for people to review and change lifestyle but also the impact that the Stamp Duty incentive schemes offered by the Government created substantial demand.
Coupled with this and the difficulties in working practices at HMLR, there have been considerable delays in post completion transactions which have resulted in some property applications completing up to 24 months after being lodged at the Land Registry.
The reasons for this have in the main been down to a volume but also complicated transactions needing certain experienced Land Registry staff to complete, which in the main, have created the delays on top of the need for the Land Registry to continue and prioritise certain services that they offer.
We have been advised by the Land Registry to advise customers that there is a link available via their GOV.UK blog which gives support and updates in respect of the transaction times and delays.
The link is here, but in a number of cases given that this is a national issue, it will still take some months if not years, for pre-Covid levels of transaction speed to return.