Death of Tenant in Common - removing from Land Registry and stealing his property this way?

Jane4646

Two (unrelated) tenants in common.

Deed of Trust does not mention beneficial interest, but mentions how the proceeding will be split in the case of sale. Beneficial interest not defined although Person 1 put deposit for property purchase, lived in the property for years and it was only Person 1 that paid  the mortgage (despite mortgage being in Pers1 & Pers2  names). Up to the date of death Person 2 did not pay anything.

Sixteen years after the purchase Person 1 dies, no will, so the whole of his estate goes to his wife (Q1: is the ownership of his part of the T-i-C property part of his estate?)

What worries me is that I read in another thread that now Person 2 (the other tenant in common) is the only legal owner and that he can ask Land Registry to remove Person 1 from Title Deeds. Is this true? Can then Person 2 just sell the property to which he paid nothing until the death of Person 1 when he became liable for the rest of the mortgage, which is now almost paid off?

Also in the 8th post in this thread it says "Form A restriction  also remains but this would not prevent the Uncle from selling the property provided that he could find another Trustee to act with him in the sale." which is also worrying me.

How can the wife of Person 1 be protected so that the share of Person 1 is passed to her?

The situation is worrying because Person 2 has already asked the wife to leave the house because "the house is now his" as he is the only legal owner.

The wife has Letters of administration.

Can she put anything on the Land Registry that would stop the sale?
Can Person 2 use bailiffs to throw the wife of the deceased Person 1 out of the house?

What if the Person 2 does not want to sell, rents the house out and keeps the whole of the income for years to come, and the wife then has nothing?

Please advise how to protect the wife who is the sole heir. The wife would like to sell the house, take her share and just get on with her life.

Emmia

It's best if you only open one thread on the same topic at a time. 

Jane4646

Sorry about Emmia said:

It's best if you only open one thread on the same topic at a time. 

I am really sorry about this. I was just not sure which forum is the best, Property or Probate. Maybe admins can help and join the threads in what would be the best forum?

km1500

person 1 and person 2 own a property as tenants in common

in the absence of any declaration of trust etc than the land registry assumes that they each own 50%. however you say that there is some kind of documentation which may change this percentage

when person 1 dies then their percentage becomes part of their estate

from a legal ownership point of view it does not matter who paid what in terms of mortgage, upkeep, outgoings or whatever

person 2 cannot simply take someone's share off the title deeds. the wife should register a caution at the land registry and then take legal advice.

what person 2 can do is try and force the sale of the property so that they can realise their assets in cash but they cannot take personal 1's share which would be distributed according to person 1's will

Land_Registry

The other law protects the beneficiary’s position. Although the legal ownership is always dealt with as a whole the beneficial ownerships can be split as you appreciate. 

Where a joint owner dies the surviving owner becomes the sole legal owner but not the sole beneficial owner. If the register refers to a form A restriction then they can appoint someone to act with them and sell but they’re both legally responsible for resolving the beneficial split/share 
Even if there’s no form A restriction that legal protection exists if the beneficiary can prove they have a beneficial share 
And as with all laws they’re made on the basis nobody breaks them and deals with the beneficial ownerships accordingly. 

If the surviving owner is claiming to be the sole legal and beneficial owner and refusing to ‘share’ then it’s legal advice/action needed.
Evicting someone is a separate legal matter but the surviving owner may be linking the two for some reason. 

There’s no option to register a caution against dealings with the title as cautions no longer exist. Her legal advice should focus on how she might realise her beneficial share it seems