On 3 August 2009, the Land Registry introduced a new policy known as Early Completion. This new process relates to the procedure to be applied by the Land Registry when it is processing multiple applications, including the discharge of a seller's charge. If an application for registration is made, but no evidence of satisfaction of a Legal Charge is provided, the Land Registry will now reject the application for the discharge of the Legal Charge, but will complete the registration of the other documents forming part of the application.
The result is that if an application is made to register a Transfer of a property, a new charge and a discharge of an existing charge, the Land Registry will proceed to register the Transfer and the new charge at the earliest possible time, even if no evidence of a discharge of the existing charge has been provided. This is what is meant by early completion.
The effect of this in practice is that the purchaser's new charge will be registered, but it will be a second charge behind the existing charge until such time as the evidence of the discharge of the original charge has been lodged.
Due to the low volume of transactions in the current economic climate, the full impact of this change on day to day practice is not yet known. However, it is likely that a new lender will insist that its solicitors are either holding a discharge of an existing charge prior to completion of a transaction or have obtained an undertaking to that effect from the seller's solicitors.
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