Lost title deeds

tom0407

Hi,

I was hoping for a little advice. We are currently in the process of buying a new house, however early on in the process it became apparent that the sellers solicitor has lost the deeds to the property.

They have now apparently registered new deeds with the land registry, but I just wanted to check if there were any issues we should watch out for... We don't want to be in a situation were someone in the future turns up with the old deeds and claim they own it and not us.

I'm probably just being over cautious and I know this is obviously the sort of thing our solicitor should be taking care of for us, but I thought it wise to get other opinions, as this is pretty important stuff.

Thanks,
Tom

Dan:_4

Sometimes due to slack solicit'ing this happenens. You have nothing to worry about.

G_M

Are you using a solicitor or doing the conveyancing yourself? If the former - don't worry, he'll check things. If the latter, well, you'll have to check things.

However provided the Title is properly registered with the land registry I don't why it should matter if this was done 10 years ago or 10 minutes ago.

zzzLazyDaisy

Once the property is registered at the land registry, that becomes the legal title. It may take a while to go through, so there may be some delay, but legally you are entitled to rely on the title registered at the land registry as being legally accurate.

Does that answer your question?

tom0407

Thanks very much, that is very reassuring.

timmyt

tom0407 wrote: »

Hi,

I was hoping for a little advice. We are currently in the process of buying a new house, however early on in the process it became apparent that the sellers solicitor has lost the deeds to the property.

They have now apparently registered new deeds with the land registry, but I just wanted to check if there were any issues we should watch out for... We don't want to be in a situation were someone in the future turns up with the old deeds and claim they own it and not us.

I'm probably just being over cautious and I know this is obviously the sort of thing our solicitor should be taking care of for us, but I thought it wise to get other opinions, as this is pretty important stuff.

Thanks,
Tom

Yes, there is an issue.
Box B - Proprietorship Register. Does it say Possessory Title or Title Absolute?

If the former, then you have a very real issue. Let us know what it says.

tom0407

Hi,

Thanks for that timmy, sorry I don't really understand what you mean though.

We haven't actually seen anything ourselves yet. When we put in an offer on the house, we were told by our solicitor that the sellers solicitor couldn't find the deeds to the property. They carried on searching for them for weeks until eventually the seller told them to assume they were lost and get new deeds created. This took ages to sort out, they had to first get the old lady we're buying off to prove that she owned it, which included getting her to sign an affidavit I believe, but I don't really know all the legal details of it. Eventually they managed to get it all done and sent off to the land registry and new deeds were sent back, which have since been faxed to our solicitor.

The sale is now going ahead as per normal. We haven't exchanged or anything yet, and before we do I just wanted to get some general opinions about our situation... How normal it is, what we should look our for (if anything) etc.

So should it be a Possessory Title or Title Absolute? Whats the difference? I can then ask my solicitor and sound clever

Thanks,
Tom

CLAPTON

why not spend £4 / £8 and log onto the land registry website and see the registration documents: only takes a few minutes and you will see what they say

tom0407

Good idea. I was wondering if we could do that but haven't looked yet.

00ec25

tom0407 wrote: »

So should it be a Possessory Title or Title Absolute? Whats the difference? I can then ask my solicitor and sound clever

there is an old saying: possession is 9/10ths of the law
but adding to that re housing: the remaining 1/10th is the absolute title:D

The LR uses possessory title where it is satisfied you are legally in possession of the property (ie you are occupying it ) but they are not absolutely sure that there may not potentially be a dispute over who absolutely owns it, so to answer your question, the words you want to see are "absolute title"

see the actual legal definitions on the LR guidance at section 4.2 page 2 http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/upload/documents/public_guide_003.pdf

tom0407

Great, thanks for the clarification. I think they have registered absolute title deeds, but I will check.