Registered Charge on house

Katgoddess

My father died earlier this year.

He and my mother divorced when I was a child and I believe the house was split between them both. A few years later she managed to get him to put the entire house in her name. :mad: A few years after that he managed to get a registered charge put on the house in his name, which is listed on the deeds. In his will it states that he has left his interest in the property to my siblings and I. Do we have any sort of claim on what his charge was? How would we find out what that was? There are a few more complicating factors too, but if anyone could advice me on if a charge on a property can be inherited and where to go from here that would be great.

Yorkshireman99

Katgoddess wrote: »

My father died earlier this year.

He and my mother divorced when I was a child and I believe the house was split between them both. A few years later she managed to get him to put the entire house in her name. :mad: A few years after that he managed to get a registered charge put on the house in his name, which is listed on the deeds. In his will it states that he has left his interest in the property to my siblings and I. Do we have any sort of claim on what his charge was? How would we find out what that was? There are a few more complicating factors too, but if anyone could advice me on if a charge on a property can be inherited and where to go from here that would be great.

More information needed. How was the charge added and what does it say.

Katgoddess

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

More information needed. How was the charge added and what does it say.

On the copy of the deeds I obtained from the land registry, the proprietor is listed as my mother.

There is a registered charge from the bank the mortgage was from originally who I believe still hold the paper deeds. There is also a registered charge in my fathers name. It just says:
REGISTERED CHARGE dated xxx to secure the
moneys therein mentioned. Proprietor: <my dad's name>

The date is 10 years after the divorce. There is no further information. I don't know how it was added. I have found a letter from the solicitors who drew up my fathers will confirming that he had a "mortgage" on the property (the charge?) and that the benefit of the mortgage would pass to his beneficiaries in the event of his death. So how would we find out how much is his, and how would we go about getting our "share" put into our names, if that's possible? I don't have a clue how any of this works.

Manxman_in_exile

You say that sometime after their divorce, your mother managed to have the house transferred into her name [1].


Is it possible that they agreed that she would buy him out, but that she couldn't afford to do so, so he lent her the money as a "private" mortgage? There ought(?) to be some documentation of the amounts involved.


Apologies if I've missed the point - I'm no expert!


[1] Not sure why ownership of the house was not resolved upon the divorce?

Katgoddess

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

You say that sometime after their divorce, your mother managed to have the house transferred into her name [1].


Is it possible that they agreed that she would buy him out, but that she couldn't afford to do so, so he lent her the money as a "private" mortgage? There ought(?) to be some documentation of the amounts involved.


Apologies if I've missed the point - I'm no expert!


[1] Not sure why ownership of the house was not resolved upon the divorce?

There is no way she would have been able to buy him out.

Reading through the deeds again, her name was listed as proprietor at the time of the divorce. So maybe it was given to her completely then? I'm not sure what happened, other than us kids and her lived in it, whilst he paid the mortgage and the bills, and he ended up in a council flat. I may have assumed incorrectly that it was jointly owned?

I have no idea where to look for the documentation of how much of the property he "owned".

Crabapple

After the entry about the charge see if the words 'copy filed' appear. If so you can get a copy of the document from the land registry for a small fee.

Katgoddess

Crabapple wrote: »

After the entry about the charge see if the words 'copy filed' appear. If so you can get a copy of the document from the land registry for a small fee.

It does not say this.

Land_Registry

I suspect that as part of the divorce settlement they agreed that he would get a a share in the house's value but that could not be realised at that time, so a charge was registered instead to protect his interest.

If he has now sadly died then that interest forms part of his estate so can indeed pass to his beneficiaries.

A registered legal charge is in effect a 'mortgage' in so far as it is secured against the property/registered title. The bank will though have the mortgage as that was secured to release the monies, presumably to buy the house. Your Father's charge is slightly different as no monies were released but presumably it was agreed to so that they could be in the future - only your Mother and the solicitor who acted at the time (and possibly the Bank who may have had to consent) would know for sure though. We would not.

When the charge was registered (last 15 years?) they will have used a form CH1 which your Parents will have both executed. The CH1 will most likely have included some specific details re the 'interest' and it's value but that can vary, especially if it was created as part of a wider settlement and those details are captured in some other form and not registered.

You can apply for a copy of the form CH1 by post and it costs £7. Just fill in the form OC2 with your details and those of the charge/date/title.

If you want a copy of the application form used, which will also confirm who submitted it (the solicitor?) then you can add that to the form as well and pay a further £7.

Once you have that detail I would recommend seeking legal advice as to whether you are able to realise his interest now.

You should also consider obtaining probate as this will enable you to deal with his estate and ultimately discharge the charge or update the registered details as appropriate

Keep_pedalling

What does your mother have to say about this?

Katgoddess

Land_Registry wrote: »

When the charge was registered (last 15 years?) they will have used a form CH1 which your Parents will have both executed. The CH1 will most likely have included some specific details re the 'interest' and it's value but that can vary, especially if it was created as part of a wider settlement and those details are captured in some other form and not registered.

You can apply for a copy of the form CH1 by post and it costs £7. Just fill in the form OC2 with your details and those of the charge/date/title.

If you want a copy of the application form used, which will also confirm who submitted it (the solicitor?) then you can add that to the form as well and pay a further £7.

Once you have that detail I would recommend seeking legal advice as to whether you are able to realise his interest now.

You should also consider obtaining probate as this will enable you to deal with his estate and ultimately discharge the charge or update the registered details as appropriate

Thank you! It was December 1999 so 18 years ago. Would that make a difference?

Katgoddess

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

What does your mother have to say about this?

Without being too specific she is unable to say anything about this at all.