House Deeds problem

Garry_Grant

Scots law
My father died in 1997. We did not obtain confirmation as everything was simply passed over to his wife.

Earlier this year his wife - my mum - died. They are survived by myself my sister and brother. There was a will, apparently lodged with her Bankers but after enquiries they could not locate it!. At significant cost (Bond of Caution, sheriff fees etc) I subsequently obtained confirmation and am now executor dative. There is no inheritance tax to pay as the estates value is below £325000.00

My parents house - mortgage free and valued at 265k - was in my dad's name on the deeds, and we did not change it over to my mum's when he died.

We are now selling the house and there is a firm offer in the pipeline. But here is the bad news, the estate agent/solicitor is adamant that because the title deeds are in my father's name I will have to go through the same confirmation process in respect of my father who passed almost 20 years ago that I did with my mother before we can sell the house. We are somewhat confused as to whether we need to go through this process again at a cost of thousands when I believed that it would be possible just to change the names on the deeds to either my mother's name or our own names. Is it not possible in the circumstances just to transfer the title deeds on the Scottish land registry.

Can anyone shed any light on the best course of action? Many Thanks.
Garry Grant

davidmcn

Your solicitor's correct. The same principles apply to your dad's estate - the rest of the world doesn't know who was entitled to inherit his house.

Garry_Grant

Many thanks David. My thoughts were that in law even without a will the house would pass to my Mother so anything in my fathers name was on his death automatically hers. So this is not the case. This must be a very common occurrence where in the "olden days" properties would normally be in the sole name of the husband.

davidmcn

Garry_Grant wrote: »

My thoughts were that in law even without a will the house would pass to my Mother.

Generally speaking, yes, but how would anybody else know whether or not your dad had made a will? As you'll have seen from your mum's estate, part of the process is you swearing that you're not aware of there being a will, the court agreeing that you're entitled to act as executor, etc.

G_M

Scotland may be different, but I know that the England Land Registry would not just change a name on a Title on the request of any Tom, !!!! or Garry.

The LR (rightly) need evidence that the proposed new name is someone entitled to own. And that the proposed removed name is someone whose name should be removed. And that the person proposing the change is entitled to make the application.

In the case a death, the Grant of Probate is the document required.

Ignore your estate agent (what does he know?) but be guided by your solicitor.

This is likely to take time and you may lose your buyer.

TBagpuss

Garry_Grant wrote: »

Many thanks David. My thoughts were that in law even without a will the house would pass to my Mother so anything in my fathers name was on his death automatically hers. So this is not the case. This must be a very common occurrence where in the "olden days" properties would normally be in the sole name of the husband.

not sure on Scottish lat I thin kthere are two issues.

one is tha the house was just in your dad's name. If it have been in joint names then it might have passed automatically to your mum and you would have simply neded his death certificate to show that he had passed on.

However, as is was just in his name you ned to be abl to show that he has died and also what the will said, oe evidnce that there was no will and that you mother was entitled to the property under his intestacy.

In England you would need either a grant of probate (if there was a will) or grant of administration (if there wasn't)

If there was a will but the organisation holding has lost it then I would have throught that you should be able to make a complaint and claim any additional costs back from them, but of course you would nbeed to be able to show that they had lost the will.