Deceased Owner - Lost Title Deeds - No living family

Tyler119

August put an offer in for a 2 bed terrace house...needing plenty of work which was to be done then sold on as a refurbished property.

I negotiated a pretty decent deal in relation to the fact nothing had been done to the house in decades.

Found solicitor and instructed them. Turns out property was left to a charity by the deceased. However sale has ground to a halt as no one can locate title deeds and the property was never registered with the Land Registry (owner appears to have been in it all his life). No living family can be traced.

Has anyone had to deal with this sort of problem before? Solicitors are not being helpful in terms of time scales or anything. THey just say they have written to all banks to see if they have the title deeds and so far have come up short.

My concern is that this is going to take an awful long time and I'm wondering if I should move onto another project.

Any advice would be welcomed, and any questions if I have missed anything out.

AdrianC

Ownership of properties used to be proven by possession of the deeds.
For the last few decades, it's been proven by registration at the LR.

For an unregistered property with no deeds, then the simple fact is that there is nothing to prove that he owned it. If he didn't own it, he can't leave it to the charity. If he didn't leave it to the charity, they can't sell it to you.

So it's all down to what the LR accept as proof of likely ownership.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/first-registration-of-title-where-deeds-have-been-lost-or-destroyed/practice-guide-2-first-registration-of-title-if-deeds-are-lost-or-destroyed

The next question is, of course, who pays. And that's down to what you agree with the vendor.

Bonfire_Bride

I guess it could be a long time until you receive an answer with regards to who the deeds are with. If you are in no hurry and have bagged yourself a good deal, then it may be beneficial to wait.

If you're eager to start this project then it may be time to throw in the towel.

Sorry, I haven't really answered your question. Solicitors should be used to these scenarios though or have some knowledge on what to do....

Sounds potentially very messy.

Davesnave

I'm party to a similar sort of scenario which is happening around sporting rights on a property owned by a friend.

It's been going on for well over a year now, but each case is different and some will be more easily resolved than others.

The Land Registry rep visits these pages and may advise in general terms, but I doubt if they will be able to estimate a time scale.

Tyler119

Thanks for the comments, appreciated.

I think that I may have to tell them I'll be passing on this property. I have a suspicion that it is going to go on for longer than I like; all adds to the experience I guess.

moneyistooshorttomention

Admits to being surprised that a charity wouldnt sort this out first - ie making sure the property is Registered okay - before putting it on the market.

AdrianC

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Admits to being surprised that a charity wouldnt sort this out first - ie making sure the property is Registered okay - before putting it on the market.

They just want to maximise the return on the bequest. They've taken the decision that that'll come from letting the buyer take the legal fees and delay.

Tyler119

AdrianC wrote: »

They just want to maximise the return on the bequest. They've taken the decision that that'll come from letting the buyer take the legal fees and delay.

Well I'm walking from it. It is a solicitor locally that has been dealing with it for the charity. I do find it quite shoddy that they did not have this basic sort of paperwork sorted before it was put on the market.

Having sold a deceased owners property, making sure the property was registered and title deeds were available was about the first move I made.

As I said you live and learn and from now on I'll need to ask the question beforehand if a similar situation arises.

Thanks everyone.

getmore4less

There must have been a will the executor/administrator should be dealing with this not the charity.

They are going to struggle to get people interested as a development to sell it would be a nightmare to move on.


As the solicitors will want paying and the estate money will run out eventually, if the charity don't want it they will just ignore it I can see this getting abandoned(or occupied for adverse possession).

AdrianC

getmore4less wrote: »

There must have been a will the executor/administrator should be dealing with this not the charity.

Perhaps the charity ARE the executors, too?

lisyloo

seems negligent to me to on behalf of the estate agents
Have you spent much money?
If I had I'd be investigating getting it back from people trying to sell something they can't legitimately prove ownership of.