Price approx half house's value listed on land registry

student100

We've found a property we like and are thinking about making an offer.

The house is on the market for £320k - was originally put on at £330k last summer, changed agents and dropped the price recently.

Out of interest I paid £6 for the land registry title record and it says that the current owner paid £140k last July. Which seems low, and also a little odd, as I know he's been living at the house since at least 2005, I think actually since the house was built in the late 80s (no sold price data shows up on Rightmove etc, and his name is listed on a planning application for an extension in 2005).

Since the price paid last summer is a bit under half the current asking price my guess is maybe that this was him buying out half of the property after a divorce or death etc? Would that show in this way on the land registry record?

Dan-Dan

As far as i understand it, only the price paid will show, no further data is available

molerat

Possibly divorce settlement etc, my next door neighbour's house showed up at a silly price for that reason.

Surrey_EA

molerat wrote: »

Possibly divorce settlement etc, my next door neighbour's house showed up at a silly price for that reason.

This, very likely a divorce/separation payment.

ElsieMonkey

I would just ask the estate agent outright. Tell them you're considering putting in an offer, but you would like to know why it appears to have been sold for such a low price last year in comparison to its current asking price. At the least it shows you're serious as you've done your homework. No reason for this to put you off making an offer though I'd think - just interesting to know (the more info you have about the sellers situation the better)

student100

Makes sense, yes I was guessing it was a divorce settlement or similar.

I agree, it won't really affect our offer, was just puzzled by it.

Thanks

greatcrested

Data excluded from the House Price Index and Price Paid Data

Our House Price Index and Price Paid Data include information on all residential property sales in England and Wales that are sold for full market value and are lodged with us for registration.
Our House Price Index and Price Paid Data exclude:

• sales that have not been lodged with Land Registry.
• sales that were not for full market value. By this we mean, the sale of part of a property, a share of a property or the sale of a property at a discount. For examples a transfer between parties on divorce
• transfers, conveyances, assignments or leases at a premium with nominal rent which are:
  • ‘Right to buy’ sales at a discount
  • subject to a lease
  • subject to an existing mortgage
  • to effect the sale of a share in a property
  • by way of a gift
  • under a compulsory purchase order
  • under a court order
  • to Trustees appointed under Deed of appointment
• Vesting Deeds Transmissions or Assents of more than one property
• leases for seven years or less
• additional price paid transactions valued below £100 or above £99,999,999

Exclusions specific to the House Price Index only

The exclusions are:

• all commercial transactions. By this we mean any transaction that involves a transfer to a corporate body, company or business
• sales that were not for full market value. By this we mean, the sale of part of a property, a share of a property or the sale of a property at a discount. For example a repossession sale or transfer between parties on divorce
• buy-to-let (where they can be identified by a mortgage deed)

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/about-the-price-paid-data

However the Land Registry do make mistakes so may have recorded a price paid believing it to be full market price.

densol_2

I bought my ex out many moons ago. The price appeared on " sold " Right move prices for some time - then disappeared. Obviously deleted as per the above price index link. It brought down the " average " prices for the road for some time ! Lol

I agree with others - almost certainly transfer of equity

Land_Registry

The price paid/house price data is a different thing to the details which are added to the register and the OP refers to the register entry

Does the entry state 'The price stated to have been paid on ......... was.....' or is there some alternative wording?

Yes, we can get it wrong so if you think the register entry is wrong e.g. it was in fact for half the value then you can contact us with the details or if it's the price paid/house price data you can contact that specific team. In both cases we can check and amend as appropriate.

Ellen016

We are currently buying a house for £178K and the last sold price was a few years ago and is listed as £65K. We thought this was odd and spoke to the estate agents and it was to do with the fact that the son of the elderly couple living there had bought it off them and this was how much he paid off or something (not 100% on the specifics as my husband spoke to them about it). It wasn't a true reflection of the price or value of the property in any case.

student100

Land_Registry_representative wrote: »

The price paid/house price data is a different thing to the details which are added to the register and the OP refers to the register entry

Does the entry state 'The price stated to have been paid on ......... was.....' or is there some alternative wording?

Yes that's what I was thinking. This purchase doesn't show in the price paid data available on rightmove etc, I guess because of the "omit the entry if it would be misleading, for example, the value stated represents only a half share of the value of the property" rule referred to here.

The registry entry has exactly the wording you quoted.

Thanks for clarifying.