If someone owns a property or land, in most cases, their ownership will be registered with HM Land Registry on their central register and the title deeds proving they ownership a public document for anyone to purchase and view. However, this is not always the case. Some properties and land remain unregistered, usually because it has been owned by the same person or family pre-dating the system now used for registration.
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Compulsory registration was not introduced until 2003 so even properties purchase in the early 2000’s may be unregistered, although this is unlikely as registration would have been highly recommended at this time and it is more likely properties owned since the 1960’s and 1970’s or earlier are the ones still unregistered today.
This causes issues when dealing with an empty property that is unregistered and the hard copy title deeds cannot be located or have been lost, either when the owner is alive or sadly deceased. The property is often the only assets and without evidence of ownership, usually in the form of a Land Registry Title, a party is unable to do anything with this asset or arrange for it to be sold.
How Can We Help?
We can undertake investigations and compile evidence supporting the ownership of the property through enquiries with local solicitors; historic bills; birth, marriage and death entries; and even witness statements from neighbours. If the Deeds still cannot be located, we will then submit an application to the Land Registry requesting registration in the name of the purported owner (or the appropriate legal representative) using the evidence obtained claiming that the original Deeds have either been lost or destroyed. Our application will also request that in the alternative, a claim is made based on adverse possession if we have been able to prove at least 12 years of occupation. Once successfully registered, action can then be taken in respect of the property.
Case Studies: Missing Deeds
We have recently acted where the deceased died 6 years ago and family members had taken no steps to administer the estate or deal with the property despite outstanding care fees owed to the council. Genealogists were able to and a relative of equal standing willing to instruct our firm in the administration of the estate and, following receipt of a Grant, we were able to make an application to the Land Registry.
Within just 3 months of our application, the property was registered in the name of the administrator with the council able to secure their charge against the property. We were successful in getting the Land Registry to expedite our application due to interest accruing on the charge and deal with the application quicker than the present 18+ month average timeframe.
