Transfering Deeds

Dylath

Hi

My father passed away earlier this year leaving everything to myself and my three brothers. We engaged the solicitors who hold the will and house deeds about 5 months ago and we have yet to the deeds signed over. The house has no outstanfing mortgage and has currently been valued at £150,000. It was built in the 50's and is not listed with Land Registry. The solicitor is telling us it will cost £1000 to sign the deeds over into all four of our names. The solicitor also claims he cannot initiate the process until we decide whst we plsn to do with the property. Is this true? Is £1000 a reasonable charge in this situation?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Yorkshireman99

It is unreasonable unless the documentationis complex. As for you needing to decide what you will do with the property that is absurd.

Keep_pedalling

Thransfering the property is pretty pointless if in the end you sell it, which is what is likely to happen with 4 of you sharing it, unless you all want to be landlords.

Dylath

One of my brothers plans to buy the property from the rest of us hence the need for deeds transfer.

Kynthia

As it's not registered with the land registry it's more complicated and time-consuming to do this first registration. I don't know if £1000 is reasonable but it will definitely be more than the standard transfer fee. If you are selling then to save money the solicitor will probably put the property straight into the new owners names, or if any one of you is buying out another, rather than than have to register it twice.

RADDERS

It can all be done in one transaction, the first registration and the deeds into your brothers name. There is no need to register and then transfer, if you were selling to a stranger that is how it would be done.
You need to tell the solicitor this and he should just charge for registering the property unless he is the executor of the estate as well.

Dylath

We suggested doing that, bypassing the step of putting all our names on the deeds. The solicitors are 'reluctant' to do that.

Yorkshireman99

Dylath wrote: »

We suggested doing that, bypassing the step of putting all our names on the deeds. The solicitors are 'reluctant' to do that.

Have they said why? Unless they have reservations about the documention it is hard to see why they are reluctant unless they want the extra fees!

eddyinfreehold

Firstly, as the property is unregistered, the executors have a legal obligation to register it on the death of the owner of the freehold and its transfer to a/several beneficiaries whilst the estate is in administration. That is the law.

Your solicitor might be being a bit pedantic but I see his point. On the assumption that all four of you are joint and equal beneficiaries, does any distribution of the estate involve the son/future house owner paying into the estate to buy the property or is the estate large enough after any tax liability to distribute the house to one brother and cash to the others? I think the solicitor is thinking ahead and showing a clear legal paper trail for the future. Whilst in administration all four beneficiaries are shown as joint owners. After Grant of Probate a simple transaction in the distribution process transfers ownership to one person. It is neat and transparent.

Registering a property for the first time with the Land Registry is not a straightforward process and you don't want to make mistakes. I have seen much higher bills than £1000 for this. I would go with the solicitor's advice myself.

Dylath

"Have they said why? Unless they have reservations about the documention it is hard to see why they are reluctant unless they want the extra fees!"

They just say it is "Law Society Rules".

Yorkshireman99

Dylath wrote: »

"Have they said why? Unless they have reservations about the documention it is hard to see why they are reluctant unless they want the extra fees!"

They just say it is "Law Society Rules".

I was not aware of that rule but assuming they are correct then you really have little choice but to go with it.,