Changing name on house deeds

srcandas

Hope this sits well here but if it should be elsewhere please let me know.

Basically my brother has changed his name my deed poll. He has not changed his surname.

So as an example (not his real name) he was

Nicolas Henry Gordon Smith

and now he is Nick Smith

He made the change without any great fuss. Just wrote a document declaring the change. And then changed various financial bits and pieces.

However he has now inherited my parents house in his former name, and would now like his new name on the deeds. Is this easily done and will land registry want anything other than a birth certificate (original name) and the document stating the change? He will shortly have the deeds physically in his hands so that is not a problem.

And thoughts on is this easy, costs and other documentation he may need, would be much appreciated.

:beer:

davidmcn

When you say he "has inherited" the house, what stage has it actually reached? Do you mean the executors have already completed the transfer of the property (and didn't know he had changed his name), or just that the Will has his old name and the executors are still completing administration of the estate? If the latter, he can tell the executors what his new name is.

Nobody needs to update their title deeds every time they change their name anyway, you just need the paper trail to evidence the change of name the next time you sell/mortgage the house.

booksurr

have you even thought about looking at the Land Registry yet??

they are rather good at explaining what the public needs to do
http://blog.landregistry.gov.uk/want-to-change-your-name-to-pele/

srcandas

Davidncm tx for that. I think you have answered my query.

But shrewd of you. Not yet complete. The house had some sort of trust set up to in theory protect against inheritance tax based on joint ownership of both my parents. It became irrelevant when the inheritance rules changed.

The solicitor who put this in place in the first place wanted £250 plus VAT plus expenses (Land Reg) to sort this. After some months they said it was more complex and would be double that. And now several months have passed as they sent the draft documents to the wrong address.

So I'd rather not introduce another change. So I thought get it done and get the deeds in my brothers hands (in his former name) and then sort Land Reg out a bit later without a solicitor.

And you seem to confirm that should not be a big deal.

Many tx for your very prompt reply :beer:

srcandas

booksurr wrote: »

have you even thought about looking at the Land Registry yet??

they are rather good at explaining what the public needs to do
http://blog.landregistry.gov.uk/want-to-change-your-name-to-pele/

Yes I have but that and other sources tend to use as examples a name change based on marriage where a marriage certificate gives a paper trail. Deed poll has the potential to cause problems relating to fraud as documentation can be in a varied form. And as far as I can see can be applied to an individual multiple times.

That is why I came here to hopefully get some first hand experience that might uncover issues encountered and that may not be obvious from the standard documentation..

Land_Registry

davidmcn has covered it really re the importance of what stage you are at here as that will impact on what happens next.

Slightly bemused though as to how you would be looking to 'get it done and get the deeds in my brothers hands (in his former name) and then sort Land Reg out a bit later without a solicitor.'
Whilst I can appreciate the thinking being applied as his former name is no longer his legal name I would sugegst it was the wrong option here.

If he inherited 'in his former name' I assume you mean the will referred too him as such - it would. But any transfer of the ownership by the executor for example would be to him in his current and legal name. The will or historical detail would have no bearing from a registration perspective as we would not have sight of the will/trust etc that you refer to.