Bank has lost part of the deeds

GBNI

Sorry, not much info to go on! Basically, parents have sold their house. It had no mortgage. They applied to get the deeds from the bank. Solicitor states basically the most important bit is missing (I think it's something to do with the lease hold, mum wasn't entirely sure) and it's now holding the sale up!

Does anyone know what happens in these situations?

Thanks in advance.

davidmcn

GBNI wrote: »

Does anyone know what happens in these situations?

Well, the solicitor should know, and hopefully already be sorting it out - get mum to ask them!

GBNI

Solicitor told her to go back to the bank to let them know, but so far that has been it and he didn't (or hasn't yet) given any indicaction as to what will happen if they can't be located

Tassotti

There's no such thing as deeds anymore. The Land Registry will have all the information required.

Solicitor should know this!

TrickyDicky101

Tassotti wrote: »

There's no such thing as deeds anymore. The Land Registry will have all the information required.

Solicitor should know this!

OP's already said there was no mortgage on the property so it is entirely possible that the property is unregistered and thus Land Registry has no record of it in its register.

chris_m

Tassotti wrote: »

There's no such thing as deeds anymore. The Land Registry will have all the information required.
Solicitor should know this!

Only if it's changed hands since electronic registration started in that area.

davidmcn

OP, as you appear to be in Norn Iron, can you clarify where your parents' house is - there are different land registration systems in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England & Wales which will affect the answer to your question.


Everyone here tends to assume we're talking about England & Wales until told otherwise (and quite often even after they've been told otherwise!).

HouseBuyer77

Solicitor states basically the most important bit is missing (I think it's something to do with the lease hold, mum wasn't entirely sure) and it's now holding the sale up!

Could be it's the lease itself that can't be found, rather than the deeds (as stated above, potentially available electronically). Leases however aren't available electronically and without it whoever is purchasing it has no idea what the terms of the lease are.

You may be able to get a copy off the freeholder.

Land_Registry

As davidmcn posted it is important to know where the property is

If in England or Wales then I suspect from your post that it is unregistered so if the deeds are incomplete in some way then that will need to rectified. If the issue is over the lease then as mentioned the freeholder may have a copy.

Will wait for more details though

GBNI

The house is in Northern Ireland, it's about 28 years old (they purchased it as a new build)

Thanks for all responses so far!

martindow

Do you know who the solicitors were who deal with the purchase? They may have copies of the documents although 28 years on they could be in dusty boxes and not straightforward to find.

Your solicitor should be advising how to remedy this and whether you can expect the bank to foot the bill for any extra work if they can't find the paperwork.