Amending house ownership without solicitor?

Kim.wigley

Is it possible to DIY adding your adult son to property/land ownership without a solicitor? This isn’t directly affecting me, but I’m concerned about how it’s been done.

Many years ago, my grandparents gave my uncle 1/3 share in their land & property. It has since transpired that this was only done via land registry (I think), and there were no solicitors involved. My grandmother passed away last year, her will left her share of everything to my grandfather.

Family rifts have been repaired in this time, and my grandfather now wants to leave his share (so 2/3) to my mother and my aunt - so all 3 children receive equal.

My concern is that if the transfer of ownership was not done properly, my uncle may have a claim to 100%? Or indeed, none at all (if he never owned any and grandfather leaves to mum/aunt?). Apparently there is no money to consult a solicitor on all of this now (I know, I know, money well spent in relation to property). What are the possible scenarios of what has been done without any legal advice?

Slithery

What do the deeds say about ownership? You can download a copy for £3 from the LR website.

Tiglet2

As above, your starting point is a copy of the current title, available for £3 from HM Land Registry. Once you have this you will see the owners named in the Proprietorship Register. You will need to know how the property is held, i.e. joint tenants or tenants in common.

Kim.wigley

They registered the change in ownership via land registry - is this all they would need to do? And that is where the details of type of ownership would be? You don’t need any kind of legal assistance to do it?

Kim.wigley

Thank you for the above advice - I've now downloaded it and I just need to check.

The following link: https://mindatrest.co.uk/blog/how-to-tell-if-property-is-owned-as-tenants-in-common/ suggests that if there's no restrictions in section B, just "Proprietor XX, XX & XX of XXX " and "Value stated as XX", then it is in fact owned as Joint tenants and therefore cannot be left to any individual through a will. My grandmother is still named on the title, so it will need to be amended at some point I presume.

steampowered

As there are no restrictions in section B, you are correct to think that this looks like a "joint tenancy" rather than a "tenancy in common".

Unfortunately it sounds like your grandparents might not have understood the difference between the two concepts. It sounds like they acted as if the property was held under a "tenancy in common", but that this was never documented and not registered with the land registry.

When a property is owned under a joint tenancy, the property is not divided into "shares". When a joint owner under a joint tenancy dies, their interest automatically passes to the remaining joint owners - NOT under the will of the deceased.

Therefore - it sounds like the current situation is that your uncle and and your grandfather own the property as joint tenants.

If your grandfather was to die tomorrow, your uncle would become the sole owner of the property regardless of what is written in your grandfather's will.

If your grandfather or your uncle decided to "sever" the joint tenancy tomorrow, so that the property was held under a tenancy in common, your uncle would own 50% and your grandfather would own 50%. NOT the two thirds he thinks he owns.

It may all be fine if the uncle is willing to cooperate and agrees that he only owns a third, but it seems there is real potential here for this to become a real problem if the uncle realises - when your grandfather passes away - that he may be able to claim 100% of the property.

If the uncle is willing to cooperate, it would be a good idea to (1) sever the joint tenancy so that it becomes a tenancy in common - this is easy enough to DIY, and (2) ask a solicitor to draw up a deed of trust stating that the uncle's share is 1/3 and the grandfather's share is 2/3. You might be looking at something like £200-300 in legal cost for that.

Tiglet2

You don't need a solicitor to add a person to a title, providing that the completed forms submitted to the Land Registry were/are correct. If your uncle and grandparents were the legal owners of the property at Land Registry, then the title would show all three proprietors. You can update the title now that your grandmother has passed away, but in reality the property would in any case pass to the uncle and grandfather on a 50/50 basis if owned as joint tenants (no restriction on the title = joint tenants).

Should your grandfather wish to leave the property to your mother and aunt, then it would be best if your grandfather and uncle owned the property as tenants in common, so that your grandfather could write his Will leaving his share to your mother and aunt. The uncle would retain his 50% though, unless he were to agree to changing to tenants in common on a 33%/66% basis. Joint tenants means that the property passes to the other proprietor. Tenants in common means proprietors can own a percentage of the property and can leave that percentage to anyone named in the Will.