Inherited house - changing title deeds

joolsybools

I was wondering if anyone out there has much knowledge of the legalities around inheriting a house? Someone I know has inherited a house but the title deeds are still in the deceased's name.

Do executors legally have to make sure the title deeds are transferred?

Are there any legal/tax issues of not doing this?

Thanks.

kingstreet

The Executor or Administrator (Personal Representative) has to obtain probate or letters of administration to show legal entitlement to deal with the property. Once they have that, it's simply a question of informing the Land Registry of the change using one of its standard forms, using the probate/letters as evidence of entitlement to handle the matter and paying the fee.

http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/public/guides/public-guide-9

In obtaining probate/letters the Personal Representative will have dealt with the tax issues relating to the property and with the assets and liabilities of the estate.

BitterAndTwisted

The executors needs to complete the appropriate Land Registry forms. The LR can advise if they are asked. Until the title to the house is transferred the exectutors have not fulfilled their statutory duties

motherofstudents

Is the plan to sell the house ? You can wait and get the solicitor/conveyancer to deal with it. Otherwise it is a simple matter to do yourself and the land registry are quite helpful.

Richard_Webster

Is the plan to sell the house ? You can wait and get the solicitor/conveyancer to deal with it. Otherwise it is a simple matter to do yourself and the land registry are quite helpful.

Yes and if the property is going to be sold anyway why pay the Land Registry fee to register the transfer to the beneficiaries?

G_M

In addition the the above excellent points, the only fly in the ointment would be if the Estate is above the Inheritance Tax threshold, but there is insufficient liquid assets (cash!) to pay the tax.

The Executers would then have no option but to sell the property in order to pay the IT.

Instead of inheriting the property, the Beneficiary would then inherit the residue (cash left over from the sale after tax paid).

houghw

An interesting topic...

I have a similar problem... My wife's parents both passed away recently and we've handled everything else with the estate (bank accounts, life insurance, inheritance tax, etc. etc.). The last remaining thing to deal with is the transfer of the house to my wife and her brother's names...

Looking around the Internet this appears to be a relatively straight forward process but...

Her parent's house is in Northern Ireland and they appear to have subtly different procedures and forms...

Unfortunately the Northern Irish version of Land Registry are somewhat less than helpful and refuse to even point me in the direction of the right form to complete.

I was wondering if anyone knows how to go about transferring house deeds in Northern Ireland and what form I need to fill out?

Thanks for your time.

CLAPTON

G_M wrote: »

In addition the the above excellent points, the only fly in the ointment would be if the Estate is above the Inheritance Tax threshold, but there is insufficient liquid assets (cash!) to pay the tax.

The Executers would then have no option but to sell the property in order to pay the IT.

Instead of inheriting the property, the Beneficiary would then inherit the residue (cash left over from the sale after tax paid).

well partly so
HMRC will allow you several years to pay the tax due so one doesn't have to sell