Property not registered with HM Land Registry after 16 months?

Looking for some post-completion help, please. We are new to property investing and we purchased two buy-to-let properties within a month of each other, using the same conveyancing solicitor. The first property we were able to refinance 6 months after works were completed without a hitch.

The second property is a different story. It is now 16 months after completion. We also bought this property using cash, we decided to remortgage as the works were now complete. On doing so, we were informed that the property had not actually been registered in our names with HM Land Registry.

We contacted our solicitor to check if this was correct and were informed that it is. You can imagine our surprise after such a long time had passed. They said that they “were awaiting documents both of which have been requested by the Land Registry in response to our application to register your purchase. These documents are not something we are able to provide ourselves and must be produced by the vendor’s lawyers.” We were also informed that the seller’s solicitors are not answering any of their telephone call or emails. Additionally, they are having to wait an appropriate amount of time and try different avenues to make contact before reporting them to an official body.

On further investigation with HM Land Registry, informed us “it can be seen that an application to transfer the property at (property address) was actually received on the 17 November 2021, having been lodged by (our solicitor’s name). Unfortunately, as we had not received a full response to requisitions which were raised with the lodging solicitors, the application was in fact cancelled, following warnings, on the 16 March 2022.”

We would like to know if what our solicitor is saying is actually accurate, or have they been negligent in not registering our property within an appropriate amount of time. What are the next steps for us?

Thanks,

Pamela