Transfer Of Equity for commercial property.

davemorton

I owned a 50% share of a freehold property with a friend who sadly passed away.  My friends share went to his wife.  The wife would like to sell me her share, and I would like to buy it.  Is this a simple thing to do, or would one/both of us need to engage the services of a solicitor please?  Value is low <£50k. There is no borrowing on the property.
Many thanks for any replies. 

Thrugelmir

Might be easiest to employ a solicitor in case something unfortunate occurs during the transaction. 

davemorton

Just checked the land registry, and the deeds are still not in her name, so guessing that would need to be sorted before anything.  

SDLT_Geek

davemorton said:

Just checked the land registry, and the deeds are still not in her name, so guessing that would need to be sorted before anything.  

If the registered title has you and your deceased friend's share as registered proprietors, the bare legal ownership will pass to you by survivorship.  It might well not be necessary to add the widow's name to the title if you are buying out the interest of your friend's estate.

You should have evidence of her entitlement to sell you the beneficial share. 

There might be a joint ownership restriction on the title which you would want to remove.

user1977

No, I don't think there needs to be any registration of her interest as a first step, just as long as all the links are with your application for registration.

Slithery

davemorton said:

Just checked the land registry, and the deeds are still not in her name, so guessing that would need to be sorted before anything.  

No. You could buy it directly from the deceased's estate without it having to be put in her name first.

davemorton

SDLT_Geek said:

davemorton said:

Just checked the land registry, and the deeds are still not in her name, so guessing that would need to be sorted before anything.  

If the registered title has you and your deceased friend's share as registered proprietors, the bare legal ownership will pass to you by survivorship.  It might well not be necessary to add the widow's name to the title if you are buying out the interest of your friend's estate.

You should have evidence of her entitlement to sell you the beneficial share. 

There might be a joint ownership restriction on the title which you would want to move.

Unsure what you mean by joint ownership restriction, so will get searching online for that.  I believe the evidence of her entitlement will be in his will.  He had informed me he was leaving it to her.  We had discussed me buying his share before he passed, and were just starting the process when Covid struck, so that put a hold on things, until it was sadly too late to sort. 

SDLT_Geek

davemorton said:

SDLT_Geek said:

davemorton said:

Just checked the land registry, and the deeds are still not in her name, so guessing that would need to be sorted before anything.  

If the registered title has you and your deceased friend's share as registered proprietors, the bare legal ownership will pass to you by survivorship.  It might well not be necessary to add the widow's name to the title if you are buying out the interest of your friend's estate.

You should have evidence of her entitlement to sell you the beneficial share. 

There might be a joint ownership restriction on the title which you would want to move.

Unsure what you mean by joint ownership restriction, so will get searching online for that.  I believe the evidence of her entitlement will be in his will.  He had informed me he was leaving it to her.  We had discussed me buying his share before he passed, and were just starting the process when Covid struck, so that put a hold on things, until it was sadly too late to sort. 

A joint ownership restriction, if there is one, will be in the proprietorship register of the registered title.  It would require two or more registered proprietors to give a valid receipt on a transfer for value.

Land_Registry

davemorton said:

I owned a 50% share of a freehold property with a friend who sadly passed away.  My friends share went to his wife.  The wife would like to sell me her share, and I would like to buy it.  Is this a simple thing to do, or would one/both of us need to engage the services of a solicitor please?  Value is low <£50k. There is no borrowing on the property.
Many thanks for any replies. 

If you were joint registered legal owners then the legal ownership has passed to you. 

The deceased’s beneficial share can pass to his widow and that’s something to resolve. 

If she’s going to sell you the share value then there’s no change to the registered legal ownership other than to update re his death - form DJP and death certificate 

As mentioned such an arrangement can lead to joint owners to apply for a joint proprietorship restriction known as a form A restriction. This restricts a sole surviving joint owner re their selling/mortgaging the property on their own or not accounting for the split re the beneficial share 

When you checked the register was there a form A restriction? See https://www.gov.uk/joint-property-ownership

If there was then you can sort the share purchase and then apply to both update the register re the death and cancel the form A restriction. See our PG 6 re death guidance and section 7 re cancelling the form A
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/devolution-on-the-death-of-a-registered-proprietor

NB - if you would welcome an explanation re legal and beneficial ownership then happy to provide but your research may have helped already