How do i find out what my deceased father owned?

blacks1111

My father died many years ago and i found out recently he owned 2 properties which wasn't in his will.
Is there any way i could find out what he owned even if i don't know the addresses of the 2 properties.

thanks for any replies

John_Pierpoint

Your posting is contradictory and colloquial.

What do you mean by "a property"? Can I translate that into all of "a clearly defined building and its footprint" or is it some other kind of property, perhaps a house boat?

Then we come to the location of "the properties". If they both have no address could you go and look for them ?

If not, what makes you think they ever existed? If they ever existed what sort of real estate are they ?

Would they be useful to anyone else?

Is this genealogy or are you hoping to find a financial interest?.

Do you think their existence might have been registered with the Land Registry ?

Perhaps they have been registered by the "adverse possessor" after use for 12 years ?

blacks1111

He owned 2 houses which he didn't put in his Will.
When he brought them he must of registered them but since i don't know the addresses i was wondering if there was any way i could trace them and get proof he owned and registered them.

John_Pierpoint

Answer all the other questions..

My dad was called John Smith and I believe he used to own 2 houses somewhere in the UK

That really isn't going to get anywhere.

My name is Bill Jones and I am living on a plot of land that did not need to be registered when I bought it in 1970.

You could try knocking on my door and asking me if I own it; I might well suggest that you go forth and multiply.

[Actually I am far too nice and sympathetic and sure of my position too, so I would not do anything of the sort; so I might invite you in for a cup of tea and a chat].

SailorSam

You say you found out recently about these properties ? How ?
If you found some old paperwork wasn't there any details of anaddress.
If someone told you, how do they know. Don't they know about where they are.
If your Dad did buy houses, perhaps he sold them again.

John_Pierpoint

I recently met up on the interweb with someone who was told by his grandmother that we both shared the same great grandfather - it certainly was not so on the paperwork, though the Victorians had not invented DNA analysis.


Similarly my mother in law was convinced that she was descended from a famous figure in history. Because of the fame involved, someone had done a family tree of the descendant in quite some detail.
Sorry she was nowhere on it not even close enough to be a forgotten cousin when a father was moving about.

So I would not really be surprised if a family had a family legend about how much richer they would be if only the 1950 £500 house were still in the family in an inner London borough, as it it recently re-sold for £1,000,000,000 +.

I have even got one of those in my family, a little research discovered that we rented it not owned it.

Assuming that father's fee simple (freehold) house still exists somewhere in England, the current occupier has almost certainly obtained "adverse possession" (squatters rights). [Unless you are royalty in which case different rules apply as the best we can get is a freehold title to a patch of land that really belongs to the queen.]

I have no idea what the rules are now in Ireland but the general rule in England is thst a tenant squats on behalf of his landlord.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/FURY+AS+LUCAN+HEIR+BIDS+TO+CLAIM+TITLE+AND+RENT+ARREARS%3B+Castlebar...-a060632151

Lord "lucky" Lucan became legally dead in 1999.

C_Mababejive

Bought........

mjdh1957

Even if they weren't listed directly in the will they would have been dealt with as a residuary estate and distributed according to its terms.

nom_de_plume

mjdh1957 wrote: »

Even if they weren't listed directly in the will they would have been dealt with as a residuary estate and distributed according to its terms.

I think the OP's concerns are that there were properties that maybe the administrator of the will was not aware of and perhaps there could be more yet to be discovered.
As an example, I own a 50% shares of 2 flats. The only paper evidence of this I currently have is a single piece of paper which is a deed of trust between me and the co-owner.
To the OP. Do you perhaps know the solicitor(s) who dealt with the purchases of the 2 properties? Obviously there's no guarantee, if there were others, the same firm dealt with them, but it could be a starting point.

Mojisola

blacks1111 wrote: »

My father died many years ago and i found out recently he owned 2 properties which wasn't in his will.
Is there any way i could find out what he owned even if i don't know the addresses of the 2 properties.

How did you find out?