We've lost our property deeds...

vonsworld

Hello,

About 25 years ago my parents got divorced and as a result of her settlement my Mum received a property which she has lived in ever since. We always assumed that our solicitors kept the deeds of this property, because they formed part of the settlement.

However we have recently tried to locate the deeds and can find no trace of them. Our solicitors say they don't have them, although our guess is that they've probably lost them in the intervening years.

My Mun is worried about what would happen if she wanted to sell the house, or if anything happened to her, how I would cope with inheriting or selling the property with no deeds. Although of course there can be little doubt that we own the property having been living in it for 25 years.

Our question is how do we go about obtaining new deeds or a copy of the old ones? How would we be effected if we wanted to sell the house or if my Mum wants to leave it to me in her will?

I also understand that householders are now being encouraged to register their properties with the land registry? Will this be a problem for us too?

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks

Shiny_button

You don't need them any more all available on line via the land registry so don't worry.

Oli.s

Have you tried the mortgage company / bank.

googler

Oli.s wrote: »

Have you tried the mortgage company / bank.

Just what I was going to say. Find out who the property was mortgaged with, and enquire there.

Do you know if there was a mortgage on the property? When it was redeemed?

kingstreet

Was the land registered with Land Registry at any time?

Check their website to find out.

If not, you're going to have to write to every solicitor, bank and other financial institution your parents' had any dealing with to try to find the deeds.

If there are no deeds available at the point of trying to sell, this will have massive impact on the price you will get for the property. A friends of mine ended up accepting 70% of market value last year in such circumstances.

http://www.newnham-jordan.co.uk/news/property-law/lost-title-deeds-do/

Land_Registry

As 'Kingstreet' suggests you could check with us to see if the property is registered, using our on-line ‘Find a property’ service, which costs £3. If it is registered then the possession of a bundle of deeds are no longer required to prove ownership. Instead, you may apply to us to issue official copies of the title register and title plan which will show who is the registered owner of the property.

It’s compulsory to register all properties that change ownership or has a mortgage for the first time. Compulsory registration was introduced at different times in different areas, therefore it could be that your mother’s property may not be registered.See our guide that contains the date(s) of when each part of England and Wales came under compulsory registration.

If it isn’t registered and the deeds cannot be found,your mother can apply to have it registered by lodging a statutory declaration or statement of truth, describing when, where, and how the deeds were lost or destroyed. It must also confirm that no one else has any interest whatsoever in the property and, in particular, that the missing deeds are not deposited as a security for a loan. See our guide to lost or destroyed deeds for more detail.

The property would need to be registered if it is sold or gifted. If sold, the buyer may insist that it is registered first or may agree to register it themselves provided they are satisfied with evidence of ownership

vonsworld

Thanks for all your responses...

I'm pleased to say our problem has now been resolved since I've checked with the land registry and the property is registered in my Mother's name.

Luckily this must have been registered by the solicitor when we bought the property back in 1985 since we haven't seen the original deeds since.

Without the land registry we would have had a problem since there has never been a mortgage on the property and as I mentioned earlier none of the solicitors have the deeds or will admit to having lost them!

Thanks again

allybongo44

My father placed his will and house deeds with a solicitor around the year 1970 that has since went into liquidation (which he only found out as he wants to change his will)and they apparantly placed the documents into archive, after contacting various people they can not find these documents.
My father has had to pay £550 to get the new deeds and they now want another £50 for a house valuation in order to get these deeds
Surely my Father should not have to pay this money as he placed these in a solicitors hands which he probably would have had to pay for at the time. Is there someone we can contact in order to try and get this money back

kingstreet

The Law Society?

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/