Lawyers for Drafting HM Land Registry Certificate of Compliance

We don’t generally do anything for new clients until our process of client retention has concluded – this involves agreeing the scope of what we are doing for the price (our terms are below), setting-up our client record (that includes ID checks), and producing the bill (payment in advance is required for all new clients).

Once the client retention process has been completed, we will review the relevant title registers and advise what action is required by the restriction before a certificate of compliance can be provided. In the event additional documentation or involvement of other parties is required, we will advise of the additional costs involved.  When the relevant provisions which the restriction is seeking to protect have been complied with, we can produce the certificate required by the Land Registry in a few hours once we can schedule it in our workflow, that can depend on how busy we are at any particular time. We would not usually take-on a job for which we could not engage within about a working week.

The certificate of compliance will need to be submitted to HM Land Registry for registration, with the application for registration of the relevant disposition.  The time HM Land Registry take to process such a registration varies greatly, depending on how busy they are. Some applications are processed very quickly, up to “next day”; however, most applications appear to languish awaiting HM Land Registry attention; in 2024 many applications were taking about 12 months to be registered – and some types of application can take even longer than that, unfortunately. However, once submitted HM Land Registry process applications on any title in order of submission – so their delay ought not to affect the priority of the application relative to other matters on that title.