House deeds still have 2 names

7CAlanf

I am executor and sole beneficiary for my mothers estate after she passed away a few weeks ago. I have applied for probate, and have progressed with dealing with the organisation who do not need grant of probate. I have cleared the property and have instructed an estate agent to put it on the market.
My problem is that checks have revealed that the deeds still have both mums and dads names on it - and dad died almost 20 years ago. When he passed away my mum was named executor and insisted on dealing with everything, probate wasn't required as essentially the estate just passed to her as surviving spouse - but she clearly forgot to remove my dads name from eth deeds.
What I wanted to know was will this cause a problem for me in selling the property, or will the production of dads death certificate be enough? What I don't want to do is to find a buyer and then mess them about because this becomes a real issue.
Any advice will be gratefully received

Flugelhorn

Hi - I have exactly the same problem and very helpful people assured me that this could be dealt with at the sale of the property. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5798355

7CAlanf

Thanks for that ... I would have hoped that this would be the case, but when I went to register the probate documents for mum yesterday morning, the lady there suggested that I might have to do probate for dad to resolve!! How on earth I could do that when he's been dead for over 19 years I don't know, but if the name change can be done by the house sale solicitor quite easily then that would be great.

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You need to download the property title from the Land Reg and check if your parents held the property as joint tenants or tenants in common.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]If T in C you will find a statement like this in section B:

[/FONT] ‘[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]RESTRICTION: No disposition by a sole proprietor or the registered estate (except a trust corporation) under which capital money arises is to be
registered unless authorized by an order of the court’.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]If they own as joint tenants then the property has automatically passed to your mother and it will be a 2 minute online job for your solicitor to put the property into just your mothers name. You can leave this until you have probate and are ready to appoint a solicitor on the sale.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]However if the property was held as tenants in common then your father's share would have formed part of his estate and you might need probate – no doubt others will comment on this.[/FONT]

Margot123

I'm in the process of buying a property where this has happened.
Unfortunately the details on the deeds don't tally exactly with those on the lady's death certificate.

My solicitor has advised not to proceed unless the seller sorts it all out.

What I am saying is that you must make sure everything ties in, that all the paperwork 'joins up' or you could reach stalemate in the sale process.

Flugelhorn

Margot123 wrote: »

I'm in the process of buying a property where this has happened.
Unfortunately the details on the deeds don't tally exactly with those on the lady's death certificate.

Is that incorrect names / spellings etc or more complex?

Margot123

Flugelhorn wrote: »

Is that incorrect names / spellings etc or more complex?

A very slight misspelling of one of the lady's first names: '.....ie' instead of '......y'.

Flugelhorn

Margot123 wrote: »

A very slight misspelling of one of the lady's first names: '.....ie' instead of '......y'.

hmm was wondering about that - my deeds /certs etc are all OK but both my parents' wills have a minor misspelling of my middle name in them .... hope it won't cause a problem.

More frustrating that neither of them noticed and the solicitor / relative who wrote the wills didn't get it right either!

Yorkshireman99

Flugelhorn wrote: »

hmm was wondering about that - my deeds /certs etc are all OK but both my parents' wills have a minor misspelling of my middle name in them .... hope it won't cause a problem.

More frustrating that neither of them noticed and the solicitor / relative who wrote the wills didn't get it right either!

It should be reelatively easy to resolve but may cost a bit for affidavits/ Any competent solicitor should be able to resolve it for you. Btter to get is sorted before you market the property.

badmemory

I know this isn't the same thing but I expect the outcome may be similar. When we sold my mother's house I had POA for her, my father had been dead over 10 years. I didn't get involved in that as I was the only one still working.

Our selling solicitors found the deeds were still in both names. All I had to do was produce his death cert & they didn't even ask for a translation (or charge us for it) as he died abroad on holiday. According to the solicitors it happens all the time.

Margot123

Flugelhorn wrote: »

hmm was wondering about that - my deeds /certs etc are all OK but both my parents' wills have a minor misspelling of my middle name in them .... hope it won't cause a problem.

More frustrating that neither of them noticed and the solicitor / relative who wrote the wills didn't get it right either!

Further to my previous post, I have had a call from my solicitor actually advising me not to 'buy hassle'. In these cases, The Land Registry is very non-committal and may accept or not accept a solicitor's statement of facts, depending on who processes the application.

Consequently, I have regrettably withdrawn from the purchase. I'm really upset, and wish the seller had sorted it all out before advertising the property. It's just wasted 4 months of everybody's time and money.