Selling house through Probate

Jon_C_1981

Hi All

Just thought I’d see if anyone has come across a similar situation. 

My aunt passed away at the end of 2023 without a will. The only asset she had was her house which we are selling. Have found a buyer for it so looking positive there.

The house is in my aunts name as I can see when I search land registry but we could not find the title deeds for the property. The house has been unencumbered for over 30-35 years and she came into ownership of it in 2010. 

Would there be any difficulties in us selling the house due to there being no deeds we can find although it is registered on land registry still in her name?

Any help here would be appreciated 

FlorayG

Do you mean documents on paper? I don't think they do that any more. I don't have anything like that for the house I bought three years ago

Hoenir

What has your solicitor advised? 

p00hsticks

As it's registered electronically with the land registry then you don't need the paper deeds (although they can be useful sometimes to expand on things like historical rights of access etc). Ask the person doing the conveyancing if you are unsure - that's what you (or rather the estate) are paying them for, after all. 

Presumably the 'we' you refer to have obtained letters of administration and have (or are in the process of getting) the grant of administration to be able to complete on the house (I'm assuming that we are talking England / Wales here)

Jon_C_1981

My mother is the administrator for the estate and she has the letter of administration. The house is in England, we were just being queried by the buyers solicitors regarding the deeds and we hadn’t been able to find these.

She’s due to speak to her solicitors this week regarding this, I was just seeing if anyone had a similar scenario or insight into what the process was when there are no paper deeds available.

Thanks for the insight here

daveyjp

If it is registered the Land Registry title documents are the deeds.

Land_Registry

The register and title plan which we hold electronically are the 'title deeds' upon which a buyer would rely on. Conveyancers may often ask whether a seller holds any original deeds/documents as well but they are not needed to prove legal ownership
Where are my title deeds, and do I need them? – HM Land Registry