Land Registry questions

Land_Registry

Henryhoof wrote: »

Hello,

Theoretical question, pondering the legality of the following:

Assume I own a home with my partner (not married) in a joint ownership. For ease assume no mortgage.

Can I transfer my joint ownership to a single ownership, ie., take my name off the deed/ownership, and not charge my partner anything for the 'purchase'.

So my partner would own the whole house and no money has exchanged hands. Consider it a gift from me.

Is that legal? Especially if my partner and I are still living together and have no plans to separate.

Yes I know I have no legal right to the house, that's fine, I trust my partner.

Question 2:
Can I then buy a second home to let, at the lower levels of SDLT?

Cheers,

Q1 - yes and our online guidance explains how but only covers the registration requirements.

Q2 - you'd need to ask HMRC

Andysandy

My wife and I are considering buying a property and would like to own it as tenants in common with an unequal share.

My question is, will the title document on the land registry clearly show the split ie 75:25 or 60:40 ?

Land_Registry

Andysandy wrote: »

My wife and I are considering buying a property and would like to own it as tenants in common with an unequal share.

My question is, will the title document on the land registry clearly show the split ie 75:25 or 60:40 ?

We don't register the split so no mention of the 'shares' for example appears on the register.
Our online guidance explains more re joint ownership from a registration perspective

Andysandy

Thank you Land Registry.

As per my conveyancer, he will complete the Declaration of Trust panel in the Transfer Deed to reflect our intentions to hold the beneficial title as Tenants in Common together with the percentage split. He said that the Transfer Deed will be lodged with the application to register the property into our names after completion. And that once lodged at the Land Registry the document becomes public.

Could you help with what he might mean by that?

Land_Registry wrote: »

We don't register the split so no mention of the 'shares' for example appears on the register.
Our online guidance explains more re joint ownership from a registration perspective

Land_Registry

Andysandy wrote: »

Thank you Land Registry.

As per my conveyancer, he will complete the Declaration of Trust panel in the Transfer Deed to reflect our intentions to hold the beneficial title as Tenants in Common together with the percentage split. He said that the Transfer Deed will be lodged with the application to register the property into our names after completion. And that once lodged at the Land Registry the document becomes public.

Could you help with what he might mean by that?

He means that should anyone apply for a copy of that Transfer then they would receive a copy and it contains details of the split/shares

The title document you referred to in your original post is what I would refer to as the actual (land) register
The Transfer (form TR1) your solicitor is referring to is the legal deed used to transfer the ownership from one party to another.

In my experience where joint owners split/share the beneficial ownership in the way suggested they formalise the details in a separate (trust) deed.
If you are concerned as to how you should formalise and record such details I would recommend you discuss this further with your solicitor

Andysandy

Thanks LR, that's clearer now. My requirement is that it not be publicly available information (if at all possible). I will consult with my solicitor and see if he can suggest a solution.

Land_Registry wrote: »

He means that should anyone apply for a copy of that Transfer then they would receive a copy and it contains details of the split/shares

The title document you referred to in your original post is what I would refer to as the actual (land) register
The Transfer (form TR1) your solicitor is referring to is the legal deed used to transfer the ownership from one party to another.

In my experience where joint owners split/share the beneficial ownership in the way suggested they formalise the details in a separate (trust) deed.
If you are concerned as to how you should formalise and record such details I would recommend you discuss this further with your solicitor

Sally_Forth

Henryhoof wrote: »

Hello,

Theoretical question, pondering the legality of the following:

Assume I own a home with my partner (not married) in a joint ownership. For ease assume no mortgage.

Can I transfer my joint ownership to a single ownership, ie., take my name off the deed/ownership, and not charge my partner anything for the 'purchase'.

So my partner would own the whole house and no money has exchanged hands. Consider it a gift from me.

Is that legal? Especially if my partner and I are still living together and have no plans to separate.

Yes I know I have no legal right to the house, that's fine, I trust my partner.

Question 2:
Can I then buy a second home to let, at the lower levels of SDLT?

Cheers,

You would be well advised to seek the advice of a tax lawyer in situations like this.
When you gift a property SDLT is payable on the fair market value of that share.
If you sell it for £1 then SDLT, as I understand it, would not be payable, however, there are a lot of other tax implications.
The remainder of the value would be considered a gift for tax reasons, if you were unfortunate enough to die within 7 years of that gift then inheritance tax may be payable.
I am happy to be corrected on any of those points as I'm no tax expert (or any expert for that matter) but I would definitely recommend proper legal advice in situations like this.

doyle1

Land Registry, My mother has gone into a care home permanently. We have discussed finance with the LA, ( I have POA) and my mother's house is being taken into account as capital.
The LA finance person said that my mother's house is not registered (quite an old house) and needs registering with Land Registry. Can you tell me the process, and also, what would stop me registering it my name?


Thanks

Slithery

doyle1 wrote: »

...and also, what would stop me registering it my name?

The fact that it's not yours.

Mojisola

doyle1 wrote: »

Land Registry, My mother has gone into a care home permanently. We have discussed finance with the LA, ( I have POA) and my mother's house is being taken into account as capital.

The LA finance person said that my mother's house is not registered (quite an old house) and needs registering with Land Registry. Can you tell me the process, and also, what would stop me registering it my name?

As your mother's POA, you have a legal duty to act in her best interests - stealing her house by registering yourself as the owner wouldn't be in her interest - although it's unlikely your scheme would work. How would you prove that you are the owner?