deeds v BS story worries

paulx_2

Hi all

My aunt is worrying herself to death over a problem with a family house. Bit of an epic story, so I'll try & keep it short!

Basically, her grandfather bought the house in 1930. On his death in 1948, he died intestate, so his 3 children carried on living in the house. 2 of the children died without children of thier own, the 3rd, my aunt's mother, died intestate too. She had 4 children, 2 who have died which leaves my aunt & my mother.

The house was never registered & in 2003 my uncle died leaving my aunt the only relation living in the house. She tried registering the house after this so that she could sell & move out, but as you can see from the story above, it was quite complicated.
In the meantime, my mum & her moved into a house together whilst the case was being worked on. Suddenly in March last year, another party gained possessory title with a BS story stating that my uncle had got into debt through gambling & in leiu of these "debts" had signed over the house! This is absolute nonsense. In June of the same year, my aunt was finally granted probate & this is when she found out that the house had been registered & the locks had been changed.

In the next month or so, letters were exchanged through her solicitor which is when the gambling story came to light. He also proceeded to sell the house, so now it is a right mess.
Basically he has stated that his solicitors went under & lost the deeds. When it was put to him that my Aunt had the deeds in her possession, he has tried to claim that when the solicitors went under, they must have sent the deeds to the house, which is how my aunt has them!

I'm basically wondering if he can get away with this? My Aunt is in her late 70's & could really do without all this mess.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

merlinthehappypig

Whilst I feel really sorry for your aunt, this isn't likely to be something that anyone on here will be able to help with.

It's obviously a really complicated situation and you need to take proper legal advice.

Forums are great for general problem solving and advice, but something as serious and complex like this can only be dealt with by someone experienced and in full possession of all the facts.

I'd hate to see things made worse by your following advice given on a forum.

paulx_2

Thanks for the reply merlinthehappypig, which I totally understand.

It was posted in the hope that someone may have come across this type of dispute before & had some sort of experience of this sort of wrangle. I've tried looking things up on the net, but nothing seems to bear any resemblance to this situation.

Thanks once again

Paulx

clutton_2

have you tried phoning the Land REgistry and telling them what has happened ? they are often very helpful - they can explain how things work - but will also probably say you need a lawyer

they have dealt with many fraudulent possessory titles in recent years

paulx_2

Hi clutton & thanks for the reply.

The case is currently being considered by the adjudicator at the land registry. My aunt put her explanation of events across at the end of Jan & the respondent put his explanation across at the end of Feb. It is just a matter of waiting now.

I just wondered if the gambling story was a potential loophole. The other thing is that even if the story was a correct one as in the gambling, considering no probate was ever conducted in concern with any of the people in the family, far less the property, would this invalidate the claim that he could have signed the house over anyway? At that point in time, any proceeds from the house would have to be split ten ways due to nephews & nieces etc being in line.

Thanks once again

chappers

Now as others have said I wouldn't take anything here as advice as your Aunt's solicitor should be the one giving advice.
I hope she has one and you are not trying to sort this out on your own.

I suspect however that as your Aunt is in possiesion of the deeds and has been granted probate she is in a strong position unless the other party can show that there was a legal transfer of the asset(depending upon when this supposed transfer was done it could be on the land registry).
The fact that he says his solicitor went bust and lost the deeds leads me to believe he is lieing.
There will have to be some form of proof that the house was signed over to him, and a letter from your Grandfather saying I give you this house will not be sufficient.

This story highlights the need to write a will.