Unregistered property

Cat1234_

Hi,
We are in the process of purchasing a house which is unregistered with the land registry. The owners of the property are deceased, the executors are selling the property. The title deeds are in the process of being obtained from the lender. The executors’ solicitors have stated it is our responsibility once we have purchased the property to register it with the land registry. We are concerned about the risk of this to us e.g if the land registry query any of the history of the property, it could be our responsibility. We personally feel that the executors should register the property, though we don’t think that this is a legal requirement. 
We are seeking legal advice from our solicitor but I wondered if anybody had any experiences or views about this? 
Thank you.

macman

No, it's not a legal requirement of the vendor, but it must be registered by you as the new owners. If your conveyancer examines the deeds and is content that you will have good title, then what exactly is your concern?

greatcrested

This is perfectly normal.

A buyer of an unregistered property must undertake compulsory 1st registration (well, his solicitor should on his client's behalf).

Prior to the creation of the current system (around the 1980s) ALL properties were unregistered, and there was, and still is, a normal process whereby the buyer's solicitor examines the paper deeds and ensures the seller has good title. That's still what happens with unregistered properties.

Quite why "The executors’ solicitors have stated it is our responsibility" to you is a mystery- they should not be communicating with you at all but with your solicitor, who in turn should be explaining all this to you.

Cat1234_

Thanks for the response 👍

Cat1234_

Thanks everyone, this is so useful. I really appreciate it.