The Land Registrar and your Deed of Purchase

Having your Deed of purchase completely registered is key to secure your rights as owner.

In the event that for any reason there is a delay in delivering the Deed into the Land Registrar, or in case that due to any defect the Deed is rejected by the Registrar - and the defect is not corrected within the term of validity of the formal presentation to the Registrar - then your rights are at risk.

One problem you may suffer is the property being embargoed by creditors to your vendor.

The embargos will be decreed normally by the Courts or the Local Councils. The Land Registrar will be obliged to register those embargoes as burdens on your property. When you eventually achieve the registration of your freehold, then you will have to request the creditors to waive the embargoes, and you may even have to take them to Court for this (an entry in this blog will comment this shortly).

Other problem that technically you may suffer is that your vendor sells the house again.

Of course this may be criminally prosecuted, though should the new purchaser be a "good faith purchaser", and should he achieve the Registration prior to you, then you may lose all your rights on the house, and just be left with the right to be compensated.