Ownership of Property

pett1960

Hi there,

Can you help me please.

I brought a flat in a converted house of 4 in 2005 from someone I knew. At the time i trusted this person who was helping me get on the property ladder. He took care of all the fine details and I acquired the mortgage. Over time I have been faced with many different problems with this flat. My relationship with the previous owner who also turned out to be the freeholder for the building broke down. I have since had a £40000 charge put on another one of my properties by the previous owner for money I apparently was lent by his wife. I did not loan any money from her. I have had many run ins with him over the state of the building which as the freeholder, he is responsible for. In this time I have run at the problem, run from the problem as well as hidden from it. I have after 15 years decided to sell this troublesome property. But I have realised that my name is not on the Land registry form. Instead the name of the previous owner and his wife is on it. If I was to sell my flat, assuming I can, who would receive the proceeds once the mortgage is paid back? Can I really have been paying a mortgage for 15 years and not own the flat? 

Thanks

Pett

xylophone

What does the mortgagee have to say? Surely a charge was registered on the property?

tom9980

If you don't own the property then you cannot sell it.

greatcrested

Who did the conveyancing for you when you bought? Do you still have the paperwork, contract etc?

Who did the conveancing for your mortgage lender?

It appears that for some reason the conveyancer(s) did not register your purchase via the TR1 (or TP1) with the Land Registry. So you need to ask the conveyancer what happened. I'm surprised the mortgage lender did not ensure this happened. Speak to them too.

I'm not sure where the wife's £40K loan comes into things as te main issue seems to be the failure to have your ownership registered - if it's not in your name, how could the wife place a Charge for this loan on a property you don't apparantly own....?

Slithery

greatcrested said:
how could the wife place a Charge for this loan on a property you don't apparantly own....?

The charge was placed on a different property belonging to the OP.

davidmcn

pett1960 said:

I have realised that my name is not on the Land registry form. Instead the name of the previous owner and his wife is on it.

What exactly do you mean by "the Land Registry form"? Are you sure you're not looking at the freehold (which you said was still owned by them) rather than the leasehold for your flat?

AdrianC

pett1960 said:

I brought a flat in a converted house of 4 in 2005 from someone I knew. At the time i trusted this person who was helping me get on the property ladder. He took care of all the fine details and I acquired the mortgage.

Such a simple statement, so many cans of worms that could be absolutely relevant...

I have since had a £40000 charge put on another one of my properties by the previous owner for money I apparently was lent by his wife. I did not loan any money from her.

Unless you agreed to the charge, then a court must have done. Nobody can just unilaterally register a charge.

But I have realised that my name is not on the Land registry form. Instead the name of the previous owner and his wife is on it.
...
Can I really have been paying a mortgage for 15 years and not own the flat?

If LR say somebody else owns it, then somebody else owns it. You've been renting for the last 15 years. Anything's possible from the mortgage wild days pre-crash, of course, but are you absolutely sure the mortgage was in your name, and you weren't just making payments to the person who "took care of all the fine details"...?

Are you sure you're not getting confused with the name on the lease? That would remain the name of the original person to whom the lease was granted, and the lease is merely assigned to you.

Give us a lot more detail, we can help you get to the bottom of this.

DCFC79

Pett do come back as other posters can help.