One major difference between the BSA instructions, introduced last month, and the CML Handbook is additional clauses dealing with the registration of mortgages where a priority period has expired.
Clause E.30 states “If you cannot register our mortgage within the priority period afforded by your Land Registry Search made before completion you must register a unilateral notice to protect our position. Simply renewing your original Land Registry Search is not acceptable.”
Clause E.31 states:
“If registration at the Land Registry has not been completed within three months from completion you must write to us explaining the reason for the delay and keep us
regularly informed of the position until registration has been completed.”
The above BSA clauses are aimed at dealing with the problem of mortgages not being registered within priority periods: a major cause a major cause of professional negligence claims.
The solicitor is unable to lodge the application to register the transfer and mortgage within the priority period then applicable, so obtains a second official search. That does not extend the first priority period or necessarily preserve an uninterrupted priority position. If another application was lodged before the second period began, it may take priority, potentially exposing the firm to a negligence claim.
It is a common misconception among conveyancing solicitors that priority periods can be extended – this is not the case! You can obtain a new priority period, but this will not extend the original one. If a third party has made a search or lodged an application in the intervening period, that third party’s interest may have priority. Some lawyers argue that the misconception of priority periods being renewable is not helped by Land Registry officials routinely misleading solicitors by suggesting that priority periods can be ‘extended’ when this just isn’t possible. Even the new BSA instructions refer to ‘renewing’!
The Law Society has been very vocal in its opposition to this particular new BSA requirement describing the BSA obligation to register a unilateral notice as ‘a major headache for conveyancers’ and a ‘heavy handed approach for resolving problems with late/out of time registrations’
The big question is who is going to have to stump up the cost for this additional work.
Note: References to E.30 and E.31 quote the BSA instructions as they appeared in 2010. Current lender instructions should be checked for the particular transaction.
2026 update: a second priority search does not extend the first
The central warning in this article remains valid. HM Land Registry’s current Practice Guide 12 confirms that an official search priority period normally ends at midnight on the 30th working day after the search application was received.
A second OS1 or OS2 search can provide another priority period, but it does not extend the priority created by the original search. Nor does it provide priority over an application lodged before the second priority period began. The register and any pending applications must therefore be checked carefully before treating a new search as adequate protection.
Where an application cannot be lodged within the original priority period, the conveyancer must consider the circumstances, the current HM Land Registry guidance and the requirements of the lender for whom they act. A second search should not be treated automatically as restoring an uninterrupted priority position.
Post-completion controls are equally important once the registration application has been lodged. Applications should be monitored, requisitions answered and any threatened cancellation escalated promptly. See our current analysis of post-completion requisitions, registration failures and lender-panel risk.
For current official guidance, see HM Land Registry Practice Guide 12.
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