Land Registry Question

norskyorkie

We married 40 years ago and bought our semi as joint owners, both our names are on the deeds which were kept by our solicitors when the mortgage was paid off 15 years ago.
We have decided it's time to make a will and because there is a history of Alzheimer’s in both families chose to sever joint ownership and become tenants in common so the local council can't force the house to be sold to pay for care.
We recovered the deeds and they are held by the building society who wrote our wills, they now say that the Land registry has no details of our property and we must pay extra to register and for them to then split the ownership.
I'm a little confused, I would have thought the property would have been added to the registry automatically.

Any help appreciated.

DVardysShadow

If you bought 40 years ago, it may well be that using the Land Registry was not compulsory in your area at the time. Registration will only occur automatically on sale of the property after compulsory registration is introduced.

I suggest you contact the Land Registry and ask about Voluntary Registration.

Land_Registry

We have a number of Guides available which cover many of the points you have raised.

DVardysShadow states registration of your property may not have been compulsory at the time you purchased. The 'trigger' dates are listed in our Practice Guide 51 which you can view online.

If the property is unregistered then you can apply for voluntary first registration - see our Public Guide 13 for which a reduced registration fee is payable.

Guidance on the different types of ownership to which you refer is provided in our Public Guide 18 although I should stress that much of the content explains how such matters may be referred to re a registered title.

Please note that the 'severance of a joint tenancy' does not trigger compulsory registration. However there are advantages to having your property registered, including dealing with the property as explained in our Public Guide 8

It is possible that your Building Society have offered to register the property and the severance for you at a fee - I assume your reference to 'we must pay extra to register and for them to then split the ownership' means your building society here

I would suggest that you read the online guides and if you remain unsure to seek legal advice. Land Registry cannot advise you on legal matters and issues such as council's forcing a sale in the circumstanecs you mention are outside of our remit.

I appreciate that the Guides referred to are quite lengthy but I hope they offer some assistance.

C_Mababejive

Wow..we have a Landreg rep..brilliant !

May i also ask what steps are being taken to ensure the registration of all land in the UK whether or not it has been bought or sold? Ta

Land_Registry

C_Mababejive, thank you for your welcome - I hope I can bring something useful to this excellent forum

It is now compulsory to register all land/property which changes ownership or has a mortgage for the first time. A number of legislative changes, the most recent being in 2008/9, have been made to increase progress towards a comprehensive land register and it remains one of our strategic objectives.

We do of course continue to encourage and facilitate voluntary registration as well e.g. offering a reduced fee of up to 25% for such an application.
As far as next steps are concerned there are no immediate plans to add to or amend legislation further but the subject is kept under constant consideration in tandem with continual monitoring of customer feedback.

norskyorkie

Land_Registry_representative wrote: »

We have a number of Guides available which cover many of the points you have raised.

DVardysShadow states registration of your property may not have been compulsory at the time you purchased. The 'trigger' dates are listed in our Practice Guide 51 which you can view online.

If the property is unregistered then you can apply for voluntary first registration - see our Public Guide 13 for which a reduced registration fee is payable.

Guidance on the different types of ownership to which you refer is provided in our Public Guide 18 although I should stress that much of the content explains how such matters may be referred to re a registered title.

Please note that the 'severance of a joint tenancy' does not trigger compulsory registration. However there are advantages to having your property registered, including dealing with the property as explained in our Public Guide 8

It is possible that your Building Society have offered to register the property and the severance for you at a fee - I assume your reference to 'we must pay extra to register and for them to then split the ownership' means your building society here

I would suggest that you read the online guides and if you remain unsure to seek legal advice. Land Registry cannot advise you on legal matters and issues such as council's forcing a sale in the circumstanecs you mention are outside of our remit.

I appreciate that the Guides referred to are quite lengthy but I hope they offer some assistance.

Many thanks, I'll polish off the reading glasses and have a look at the links provided, as someone born in Yorkshire the need to save money is part of our genetic make up.