Possessory title (again)

squashy

Well its 4 years nearly since my last post on this subject and i have decided to try and sell my house "again" (with possessory title as the house deeds were lost) Quick background we have lived here for 11 years 4 years with our gran, When she passed away the house was left to us, She had never moved house and was the only owner since it was built 1953, so was never registered at the land registry, We got the probate solicitor to put us down at first registration in 2006 and was given possessary title, we tried to sell the house 2 years later but on 2 occasions the sale fell through as the other sides solicitors advised against purchase, Are their any solicitors/conveyancers out thier that would after 6 years possessory title be more enclined to advise potential purchasers that the property (with its histroy of always being in the family) is more than safe to buy, Or should we just sit here for another 6 years and avoid the heartbreak again, We do have a full indemnity in place also .
We have had some advise in the past of someone on here (thanks Richard)but where he is quite positive, many other solicitors for the other side have been very negative, not even wanting to here the full background of our situation, Its cost us a fortune so far in legal fee's survey etc and just seem to think this system is a bit unfair as it seems to put us ibn the same bracket as squatters claiming land .

Any help please. Katherine

RabbitMad

why did the probate solicitor sort the job out properly? Can you alter the title deeds to show its been owned by the same family since 1953?

Richard_Webster

I can't remember the detail, but it could depend on the quality and clarity of the information given in any statutory declarations made in support of the application of possessory title.

squashy

We gave every bit of evidence the solicitor asked for (expect the deeds ) we had signed statements of both sets of neighbours either side confirming my gran lived there since the house was built, we had signed statemnets of my parents that my Gran wanted the house left to me, We had bills with my grans name on going back some 20 years , Letters of probate etc, We could not really of produced any more evidence, I even had some offical letters in my name to the address from council planning applicatins from 2001, to show i lived here with my Gran, But still possessary is all i got, Still hoping a buyers solicitor will look at this and see its quite clear cut, My Gran would of been 103 now, Never asked her about the deeds cos i never thought i would be in this position.

anggrrr

All I can say is that I am going through the same thing (buying a house waiting for full deeds/possessory title to be granted) and my conveyancer doesn't think it's that much of a problem. As far as I can tell, they are still not really telling me much as I guess they can't advise until the registry give their decision.

It wouldn't put me off, but then I'm not a first time buyer stretching for a mortgage.

Richard_Webster

On the face of it with the evidence that OP has mentioned there shouldln't be a problem - but what was said about mortgages? the most obvious location for deeds was with a mortgage lender so did the stat decs make clear that either they never had a mortgage or who it was with and that communications with the lender had drawn a blank.

It could be that there was a loophole somewhere in the information that made a buyer's solicitor unhappy.

In general terms if I had stat decs tracing the position back 50-60 years I would be happy to tell a lender it was OK if supported by an indemnity policy so I think there must be more to it - either the solicitors found something they weren't happy with in the stat decs or their buyer clients got all worried about it for no good reason.

vickyanglesey

Hi
Sorry you are having trouble with this. I am on the other end of this type of situation - any advice gratefully accepted. I have had an offer accepted on a property, we have paid for the searches and valuation etc, and we have a first time buyer buying our house so we have time constraints, then we suddenly find out the deeds have been lost. We will never be able to have absolute title deeds and they were only reported as being lost last year. Half the information the internet says do not touch it with a barge pole, the other half say it does not matter - I am confused! I have rung around the banks and there seems to be no problems with obtaining mortgages. I have asked for £5,000 off of the offer price as we feel that we will have to drop money from the asking price if we ever want to sell the house. Any ideas?? Is this fair??

squashy

Vicky the whole situation of possessory title seems unfaire to me, I have done 3 years worth of research now (still not sold my house) but have found out that indemnity polices from insurance companies are relativley cheap (mine is £149 for 210.000 worth of cover) the reason being it is extremley rare the insurance company ever has to pay out on property matters when the land registry have already granted some title or another, If possessory was a real problem this type of cover would run into thousands of pounds, The problem is you need both yours and the vendors solicitors to look at the merits of the case and not just assume every posossory granted is the same, I have had this title for 6 years now so may still have 6 to go before i can easily sell, I even wrote to the land registry asking why a squatter could claim possessory in the same degree as someone who can prove the house has been in their family for 60 years and quite simply the deeds were lost, Their reply was pathetic . Robert Webster on this forum seems to have alot of knowledge on the subject, Good luck.

Richard_Webster

have found out that indemnity polices from insurance companies are relativley cheap (mine is £149 for 210.000 worth of cover) the reason being it is extremley rare the insurance company ever has to pay out on property matters when the land registry have already granted some title or another, If possessory was a real problem this type of cover would run into thousands of pounds,

This is the reality. If LR are not happy with he stat decs then they won't give a possessory title in the first place. It is very rare for a possessory title to be upset - then only for technical issues - an adverse possessor can only ever acquire the title the person actually entitled to possession has - and if that is only a short term tenancy.... - see below.

Just don't squat against Council allotment land held by Council on year to year lease - freehold owner serves notice to quit on Council - real freeholder then got 20+ year old possessory title removed at Land Registry! (Adverse possessor should have applied to make it absolute but forgot!)

squashy

Well we put our house on the market 2 months ago and have now accepted an offer (full asking price) all parties are aware of the possessory title and it has not been a problem ,just had to increase the indemnity cover by a few thousand.

The last times we have tried to sell and possessory had led it to fall through conveyancers were used, This time we used a lexcel approved conveyancing solicitor, Im sure it made all the difference, he wanted every bit of information regarding the property up front first and put it to the other sides solicitors before any searchs or surveys were carried out.

Finally i feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulder's, just wonder when we find somewhere we want to move to what title the property has ????