Land registry Search

Kirkmain

i looked up the title register for a property owned by my parents on the land registry. It was inherited from my grandparents and kept in the family. I paid £3 for the title register so assumed it will be up to date. Lo and behold the named owners on the title register are still my grandparents, one of whom, my grandad passed over 40 years ago.

Can deceased people still own property? Whos job was it to update the land registry?

propertyrental

No, they cannot.

The Executor(s) of the deceased person's will, or the Administrators if no will, or the Beneficiaries if the property is inherited (as opposed to sold).

user1977

There's no requirement to update the Land Registry just because an inheritance has occurred.

Kirkmain

user1977 said:

There's no requirement to update the Land Registry just because an inheritance has occurred.

Then say a property is inherited by a group of siblings, and each siblings wishes to pass on their share to their children. What document details who owns a property?

mybestattempt

The will of the person each sibling inherited their share of the property from.

Kirkmain

mybestattempt said:

The will of the person each sibling inherited their share of the property from.

What if grandparents passed intestate? Would an official document have been issued saying each siblings gets a share

user1977

They can enter into a deed of variation. It doesn’t need to be registered at the LR.

Why are you asking anyway, as I presume that isn’t what’s happened to this property?

Land_Registry

Kirkmain said:

i looked up the title register for a property owned by my parents on the land registry. It was inherited from my grandparents and kept in the family. I paid £3 for the title register so assumed it will be up to date. Lo and behold the named owners on the title register are still my grandparents, one of whom, my grandad passed over 40 years ago.

Can deceased people still own property? Whos job was it to update the land registry?

When you have two registered owners, and one dies, the legal ownership passes to the surviving joint owner. When he/she dies the legal ownership forms part of his/her estate until probate (recorded will) or letters of administration (no recorded will) is obtained and it is the dealt with, for example transferred into new ownership. So properties can be inherited but until it’s transferred it still forms part of the deceased’s estate 
Probate/Letters of Administration are the trigger for the executor/administrator to deal with the estate and transfer the property to beneficiaries if it’s staying in the family. 

So the key here is applying for probate for grandma and the executor transferring the title as appropriate. 

pjs493

As mentioned above there is no requirement to update the Land Registry and in many cases it’s helpful not to if the property needs to be sold in order to liquidate assets in an estate to distribute the estate to beneficiaries. 

For example, my husband died last year owning a house in his sole name that has been rented out for several years. We deliberately never added me to the mortgage so I could retain my first time buyer status. When he died, rather than change the house into my name, I’ve left it in his so that I can sell in and then inherit the proceeds of the sale rather than the property. I’m both the executor and beneficiary of his Will. 

However, in the case of your parents, this really ought to have been sorted by now. For one thing, they risk a massive capital gains tax bill if they change the Land Registry now if the property has increased in value since your grandparents died years ago. For example if they wanted to sell and downsize, it’s going to take a lot of legal leg work to resolve everything because nothing has been updated. Quite simply, they’ve created a massive headache for the future. It could even been seen as a way to avoid inheritance tax, potentially. 

Kirkmain

user1977 said:

They can enter into a deed of variation. It doesn’t need to be registered at the LR.

Why are you asking anyway, as I presume that isn’t what’s happened to this property?

So my uncle (father's brother) was administrator of the estate. The property has simply left empty, like a time capsule tribute to my grandparents. My grandmother passed years ago. As far as I know nothing has been formally done to transfer the names of the property. None of my father of his siblings were in any rush to liquidate the property. Is it still possible to enter into a deed of variation? Or does my uncle, as administator now own the property outright? We're not really on speaking terms so don't want to ask him directly.

user1977

But you say it's owned by your parents? Aren't you on speaking terms with your parents? It's entirely possible the estate administration was dealt with at the time - like we've said, that doesn't necessarily show up at the Land Registry. And no, the administrator doesn't end up personally owning the estate by default simply by not distributing it to the beneficiaries.

They could do a deed of variation now, yes, though it's too late for that to have any tax-saving consequence (which is often the motivation for doing one).

Might be one more for the Deaths/Probate board than here anyway.