Selling a house, unregistered and no deeds!

[hiriskpaul]

In the ongoing saga of trying to wind up a relatives estate, I need to transfer a house to the main beneficiary, who has agreed to take it at whatever a new RICS valuation turns out to be. However, the house is not registered in the deceased name. He bought it about 60 years ago and as I understand it house transfers at the time just involved deeds. It also has now transpired that the deeds are lost. We have searched extensively and I know it was not in safe keeping at his bank. Some papers (useless ones) were, but not the deeds.

How much of a pain is this going to be? Do I need a solicitor to sort it or is there a DIY route to getting the house registered in the deceased's name?

[PinkDalek]

You’ll get a more informed reply than this one but:

1. I don’t believe the registered title will ever need to be recorded in the deceased’s name but haven’t researched that issue.

2. The executors are likely only to want to provide ‘Limited Title Guarantee’ and that would be a good phrase to research.

3. Land Registry may assist and have helpful blogs somewhere or other. No time to search from this mobile!

[Clitheroekid]

However, the house is not registered in the deceased name. He bought it about 60 years ago and as I understand it house transfers at the time just involved deeds.

It's quite possible. Compulsory registration was introduced on a rolling basis throughout the 20th century, starting with London, then the major urban areas, and ending with the most rural ones. It wasn't until December 1989 that the last areas in the remote fastnesses of Norfolk and suchlike were made subject to compulsory registration.

Consequently, if the house is in a rural area it's quite probable that there was no need to register the title if it was bought in the 1960's and nothing has happened since, such as a death or a mortgage, to trigger registration.

Of itself this isn't normally a problem. It's quite common to have to sell a house with an unregistered title, though it's funny witnessing the bewilderment of some of the `conveyancers' employed by conveyancing factories who have never seen one and dumbly insist on being supplied with Land Registry documents that don't exist!

It also has now transpired that the deeds are lost. We have searched extensively and I know it was not in safe keeping at his bank. Some papers (useless ones) were, but not the deeds.

How much of a pain is this going to be? Do I need a solicitor to sort it or is there a DIY route to getting the house registered in the deceased's name?

Now you do have a problem. The title deeds were the proof of title, and selling an unregistered title without any such proof is always significantly more difficult.

The actual solution depends on the type of property. For example, if it was a new title at the time, carved out of a larger title (for example on a housing estate) it's sometimes possible to locate a duplicate of the original Conveyance. It may also be possible to reconstruct the title from the deeds of neighbouring properties.

But I'm afraid it's definitely not something that most lay people would be able to deal with, as you need a knowledge of both property law and the unregistered conveyancing process.

One place that would be worth looking, if you haven't already, is the solicitors that dealt with the purchase. The other documents you mention may identify them, and if it's in a rural area it's quite possible that the firm still exists in some form and has the deeds in its strong room.

[hiriskpaul]

Thanks, this does look awful. I have found this link, and we may need to "reconstruct the title":

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... -destroyed

The house is in a city, with clearly defined boundary walls, almost certainly mapped by ordnance survey. I will go through the paperwork my idle cousin has unearthed. He will be receiving the property, so it is in his interest to co-operate, although one would not think it by his attitude. I have asked him to put aside anything that references the property, such as old council tax bills, rates, water rates, etc. Annoyingly, I suspect that the deeds are hidden somewhere in his house and could be found if my cousin could be bothered to really search for them.

Probably one for the solicitors to sort out.

Just a thought, as my cousin is prepared to take over the property, assuming he does not change his mind again, does that make things any easier?

[hiriskpaul]

Deeds have turned up!

[staffordian]

Deeds have turned up!

In the house as you suspected?

[hiriskpaul]

Deeds have turned up!

In the house as you suspected?

Yes.