Missing title deeds

khanji17

We are buying a property and about to sign the contracts, have been told by our solicitors that the title deed is missing for the property and we are covered by an indemnity insurance which the vendor is paying for.
There is a mention that when we come to sell the house, this might be an issue for our buyer or their mortgage firm to buy the house without the deed.
My question is, is it a common practice to buy sell properties without the title deed? Or can we open a pandora box of problems for us in future?
Any advise and personal experience will be appreciated. 

user1977

What exactly is the "title deed" which is missing?

khanji17

user1977 said:

What exactly is the "title deed" which is missing?

This is what the solicitor said:

You will note from the title that the

original conveyances are missing and

therefore we cannot advise you of

any restrictive covenants which affect

the land you are purchasing.

Tiglet2

It is old conveyances that are missing, not the title deed.  

kasqueak

I thought you could obtain title deeds which show restrictive covenants from the land registry directly?

Slithery

kasqueak said:

I thought you could obtain title deeds which show restrictive covenants from the land registry directly?

Only if they have them. The fact that the OP's are missing would usually mean that the LR don't have a copy.

md258

kasqueak said:

I thought you could obtain title deeds which show restrictive covenants from the land registry directly?

Only if the land registry know about them. My BIL has just bought a house where the deeds were not presented at first registration, (ie the physical ones had been lost before they were computerised) and so they had no idea what  covenants may be on them.

Land_Registry

When a title is first registered and the deeds are missing we will make a protective entry. This states that prior to the date of first registration there may be deeds contain8ng restrictive covenants which affect. 

Nobody knows if there are but the risk you are insuring against is that someone comes forward and proves there was a deed with such covenants and which they have the benefit of. 

It’s rarely a Pandora’s box of problems but the indemnity covers the risk. In most cases the next buyer will do the same but as with every sale/purchase the main risk assessor is the lender and different mortgage offers carry different levels of risk. So a policy that works for you and/or your lender may not for a new buyer/lender. But your solicitor should have actual experiences they can share with you