Changes required on death of Tenant in Common

[MyNameIsUrl]

A house had three tenants in common, split 30/30/40.

One of them has died, leaving her 30% share in her will to the other 30% holder, so the ownership in future is to be 60/40.

I am executor, and have contacted the Land Registry, who have explained that I cannot transfer a share, and they ‘don’t register the 30/30/40 or 60/40 split of the beneficial ownership’.

What do I need to do to have the correct legal changes made?

On a practical level, the now 60% owner is rather elderly and the house will be sold on his passing. Would it be very unwise to do nothing at the moment and simply let sleeping dogs lie?

[Chrysalis]

Could a solicitor help? Who is the 40% owner and who is the beneficiary of the 60% share? Does the ownership still need to be tenants in common or could it be converted to joint tenants (though that might cause more complications than it solves)
I suspect it would be good to get the ownership documented, to facilitate a later sale.

[MyNameIsUrl]

Could a solicitor help? Who is the 40% owner and who is the beneficiary of the 60% share? Does the ownership still need to be tenants in common or could it be converted to joint tenants (though that might cause more complications than it solves)
I suspect it would be good to get the ownership documented, to facilitate a later sale.

The 60% owner is the elderly person living in the property - the property will be sold after his passing. The 40% owner is a generous family member who supported the original purchase financially. So, converting to joint tenancy is not what's required.

As you say about getting the ownership documented, it sounds like it would be a good idea, but Land Registry have told me they don't document the percentages.

I am reluctant to do more than what is absolutely necessary to spare the elderly resident involvement in a legal process which would be stressful and distressing to him. If the later sale is more complicated because of inaction now, so be it.

If I choose to do nothing, what could the consequences be?

[Chrysalis]

What I suppose I was getting at, is is the 40% owner going to inherit the 60%?
I don’t know the consequences of not documenting the change in ownership, sorry. Perhaps our resident solicitor will be along to answer

[MyNameIsUrl]

...is the 40% owner going to inherit the 60%?

No, nothing that simple I'm afraid!

[PinkDalek]

I'm only contributing as you don't seem to have got very far to date. My reply below is clearly as an amateur.

I am executor, and have contacted the Land Registry, who have explained that I cannot transfer a share, and they ‘don’t register the 30/30/40 or 60/40 split of the beneficial ownership’.

What do I need to do to have the correct legal changes made?

I'm unclear if Land Registry have been informed of the:

Deceased joint proprietor (DJP)
Application form DJP: remove the name of a joint proprietor from the register, after a death.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... rietor-djp
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... 05-25_.pdf

No doubt someone will advise is that is the incorrect form.

As for the percentage ownership and Land Registry, they maintain a register of legal ownership but, as you've gathered, they do not record the respective shares of the beneficial ownership. Such percentages can be reflected in a Declaration of Trust for which you'd possibly need a solicitor to draft. There are cheap versions available online but caveat emptor.

I'm not certain if such a Deed is required though, as the Will (yet to be proved?) of the recently deceased person reflects the 30% as passing to the other existing 30% owner.

Was there already an agreement and/or Deed when the present structure was set-up?

What does the "now 60% owner"'s Will say about the property, if anything?

[Lootman]

As for the percentage ownership and Land Registry, they maintain a register of legal ownership but, as you've gathered, they do not record the respective shares of the beneficial ownership. Such percentages can be reflected in a Declaration of Trust for which you'd possibly need a solicitor to draft. There are cheap versions available online but caveat emptor.

It's a dozen or so years since I did this so it's possible that things have changed since then. But when we used a Declaration of Trust (it might have been called a Deed of Trust - same thing?) in order to vary the percentage ownership of our TIC property, we were told that we could lodge the document with the Land Registry. The benefit of that was that no sale or conveyance could happen without reference to the document.

So it is true that the Land Registry does not record the percentage ownership. But however it is/was possible to file a document with them to ensure that the split is noticed.

That said, in the end we decided not to lodge the Trust document. The risk with that however is that if the document records A's share at 60% and B's share as 40%, and then A dies, then B could try and sell the property as if it was 50/50. It's possible that nobody else would know or notice.

The benefit of not filing it is that you can more easily change it later.

[MyNameIsUrl]

Thanks for the replies.

I’ll make sure that the Land Registry are notified of the death by using form DJP.

The will has been proved – it left the 30% ownership to the occupant of the property, making his share 60%. On his passing, his will leaves all assets to grandchildren so the house will be sold.

I don’t feel I need to take steps to protect the percentages from foul play by the 40% owner, so I won’t lodge a trust document.