Probate/Property transfer

ImranQ

Hi,
My mother and father jointly owned their property. I was put on the Land Registry over SEVEN year ago by my parents and this has now taken effect in November 2018. My father health took for the worse around Xmas and he very sadly passed away on 16 Jan 2019. So currently my mother, father and myself are on the Register of Title of the property.

A local solicitor told me about the probate fees increase and recommended that I employ her at £1750 + probate fees to remove my father and transfer his share to my mother (in his will my mother gets his share until my mother passes away when remaining 2/3 will be passed to the children). She said it would get expensive later if my mother passes away as it would cost me twice as much at the new fee rate and twice the solicitor fees.

My question is is it easy for me to do this myself with the old fees and which form/s do I need?

Thank-you for any help you can provide.
Regards,
Imran

Marcon

That certainly looks expensive. See https://www.gov.uk/update-property-records-someone-dies

Tom99

As far as I am aware you do not need probate to update the Land Reg record where there is a surviving owner(s).
There were 3 legal owners and on the death of your father the 2 of you automatically become the legal owners of the whole property.
£1,750 to update the Land Reg record is a ridiculous sum to pay if that is all you require.
If probate for your father is required because of assets other then the house then it is very straight-forward to complete the necessary forms yourself.

ImranQ

Hi,
Thank-you for your replies.
I forgot to add that the reason the solicitor claimed she had to do it was because of a restriction in the title (apologise for forgetting to not include this above in my OP):

RESTRICTION: No disposition by a sole proprietor of the registered estate (except a trust corporation) under which capital money arises is to be registered unless authorised by an order of the court.

I'm not sure why this restriction is in the Title TBH or what the consequence is as I'm a newbie WRT estate/property law.

I can post the Title with personal info blanked if needed.

Thank-you for any insight anyone can give.
Regards,
Imran

Yorkshireman99

ImranQ wrote: »

Hi,
Thank-you for your replies.
I forgot to add that the reason the solicitor claimed she had to do it was because of a restriction in the title (apologise for forgetting to not include this above in my OP):

RESTRICTION: No disposition by a sole proprietor of the registered estate (except a trust corporation) under which capital money arises is to be registered unless authorised by an order of the court.

I'm not sure why this restriction is in the Title TBH or what the consequence is as I'm a newbie WRT estate/property law.

I can post the Title with personal info blanked if needed.

Thank-you for any insight anyone can give.
Regards,
Imran

It means that the property was held as joint tenants.i strongly advise getting professional advice.

ImranQ

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

It means that the property was held as joint tenants.i strongly advise getting professional advice.

Sorry I am not with you. The restriction I typed above is as on the property title. Are you saying it is currently held as joint tenants? Can you please clarify? What does that mean?

As my father is now deceased, does it mean his ownership has transferred over to my mother and myself?

Yorkshireman99

ImranQ wrote: »

Sorry I am not with you. The restriction I typed above is as on the property title. Are you saying it is currently held as joint tenants? Can you please clarify? What does that mean?

As my father is now deceased, does it mean his ownership has transferred over to my mother and myself?

The property is held has tenants ib commonnot joint tenants so the part owned by the deceased becomes part of the estate and does not pass automativly to the others. Please raed the stickies at the start of this forum

ImranQ

Thanks will read the stickies in detail.

Quick question tho; Does the Joint ownership supersede the wills then? The ownership to myself was done by a different solicitor from the one that drew up the wills.

However when the wills were drawn up, we showed the property papers to the wills solicitor and he didn't point out or say anything. The solicitor who gave me a quote above is from the same firm who drew up the wills. Seems like we were not correctly advised and at least some kind of negligence? I mean, what is the point of the wills and paying the solicitor for them??

getmore4less

Did/do you live in the house?

If not there is a gift with reservation.

getmore4less

The fathers name can be removed without probate.

There is nothing to change as the two remaining owners will be the only legal owners if his share passes to your mum. .

ImranQ

getmore4less wrote: »

Did/do you live in the house?

If not there is a gift with reservation.

I have always been living with my parents at the property.

The transfer of property to me has already been done by gifting and the transfer is now complete - the 7 years completed in Nov 2018. I am now officially on the property title.

My lack of understanding is with regards to
1) Removing my father from the title and the process

2) Relevance now of the will which seems redundant with regards to the property title if there is automatic transferal on death of a joint owner. If I understand the situation, the solicitor who drafted the will seems to not have taken the property papers details into account.

Sorry, not sure what you mean by 'If not there is a gift with reservation.'. Do you mean to pass on to my siblings?