Land Registry

DukeandMarley1

My son has recently purchased his first house from the council at auction.  They have given us the plan that has been registered with land registry but it includes some of next doors garden which the house has been purchased and they have also registered some of the land as theirs. So some of the land in question is registered with two different owners. The house next door has been bought and sold 3 times since it was first bought from the council.  The council insists that the land they have registered is theirs.  How can this happen and how do we go about sorting it?

user1977

Are you saying your son bought a property at auction without getting legal advice about what he was bidding for? Now may be the time to start...

I doubt it's possible for the same land to be registered with two different owners, are you sure it's the same tenure and quality of title? And that you're interpreting the titles correctly?

daveyjp

Without copies of the plan and titles being discussed its impossible to comment.

Your son needs to ask their solicitor for an explanation as they will have undertaken title checks as part of the conveyancing.  If there is an apparent title defect it should have been queried with the seller.

silvercar

Paging @Land_Registry. From what you are saying, there is a piece of land that has been registered on two sets of deeds. Theoretically this shouldn’t happen, but Land Registry must have a procedure to follow when it does.

on the face of it the council sold at auction a piece of land they didn’t own, as they had previously sold it to someone else. The council would then be responsible for putting it right, either by buying back the piece of land from the neighbour or agreeing compensation to you for the reduction in land sold. It may even mean that you can walk away from the deal and owe nothing, if the contract is frustrated by the fact the council doesn’t own the land to sell and the piece is significant enough that it would impact your enjoyment of what is in the  title deeds. 

Land_Registry

silvercar said:

Paging @Land_Registry. From what you are saying, there is a piece of land that has been registered on two sets of deeds. Theoretically this shouldn’t happen, but Land Registry must have a procedure to follow when it does.

on the face of it the council sold at auction a piece of land they didn’t own, as they had previously sold it to someone else. The council would then be responsible for putting it right, either by buying back the piece of land from the neighbour or agreeing compensation to you for the reduction in land sold. It may even mean that you can walk away from the deal and owe nothing, if the contract is frustrated by the fact the council doesn’t own the land to sell and the piece is significant enough that it would impact your enjoyment of what is in the  title deeds. 

I read it slightly differently in that each registered title includes a small parcel of land which belongs to the neighbour in each case. So you've got a bit of their garden registered whilst they've got a bit of yours.
If so then the solution is to each transfer by way of an exchange so that the errant parcels of land are removed and replaced as appropriate. You could try to claim the land through adverse possession and they do the same but if both aware and on same page an exchange would seem the best way forward

K_S

@Land_Registry My spouse and I own a freehold house as tenants in common. We are looking to change this to joint tenants. As per the guidance given here https://www.gov.uk/joint-property-ownership/change-from-tenants-in-common-to-joint-tenants, it looks like what we need to do is send the following to LR by post -

- declaration of trust showing change signed by the both of us

- RX3 

- statement of truth or ST5

Would be grateful for your thoughts on whether that captures what might be required or if there's anything else to keep in mind.

If it makes any difference, we switched from joint to tenants-in-common about 10 years ago by severing the joint tenancy with LR. Also, the house is mortgaged.

Thanks in advance!

Land_Registry

K_S said:

@Land_Registry My spouse and I own a freehold house as tenants in common. We are looking to change this to joint tenants. As per the guidance given here https://www.gov.uk/joint-property-ownership/change-from-tenants-in-common-to-joint-tenants, it looks like what we need to do is send the following to LR by post -

- declaration of trust showing change signed by the both of us

- RX3 

- statement of truth or ST5

Would be grateful for your thoughts on whether that captures what might be required or if there's anything else to keep in mind.

If it makes any difference, we switched from joint to tenants-in-common about 10 years ago by severing the joint tenancy with LR. Also, the house is mortgaged.

Thanks in advance!

RX3 and ST5 are the forms to use here - the ST5 is a statement of truth and designed for this very purpose. In the past people might do a statutory declaration (and still can) but the ST5 now helps, hopefully.
The reference to declaration of trust is made as often people do draw up such a document, but not always, so if they are then changing that a new one is drawn up.