Land Registry.......

[Im a BusyBee]

We are in the process of paying off our mortgage and when the deeds come back from building society (which is what i assumes happens?)iam not sure what to do with them.....there is no information about our property on the land registry site. If i 'get it registered' is that something i can do myself? what does it involve? I imagine the deeds will be very important until this is done so if i copy them a couple of times and leave 1 copy in my office, give 1 to a relative and keep the originals at home is that safe enough? its something i feel i must get sorted out but dont have the enthusiasm to get on and do it!!

[LoftyLottie]

I presume your house is an older building if it is not registered. Yes you can do it yourself, but it is quite technical.

http://www.landregist...-register-my-property

It is important to keep the deeds especially if your house is an old property, even after registration. As I have learned, the land registry plans are not necessarily correct and they cannot be used in a court of law, although most modern homes have accurate land registry plans.

Personally, I would just go to a registered conveyancer and get them done. Will probably set you back about £400 is total, the land registry fee is about £200 from what I remember.

[LoftyLottie]

My deeds are just kept safely at home, they represent more of a historical record than anything else once you are registered, but came in very handy when a neighbour claimed we had stolen his garden. (It was then that I learned that land registry plans on very old properties were almost always not correct!!)

[ubasses]

Keeping the originals at home isn't a good idea, if the unthinkable happened and you had fire or even a burglary where they just grabbed everything. Lodging them in Safe Keeping with your Bank would pobably be best.

[237SJ]

Get a fireproof/floodproof documents tin and put them in the loft.
My father`s solicitor had safe keeping of our house deeds. They moved offices and lost them.

[LoftyLottie]

I haven't bothered because our land is registered - the building society told us there was no need to keep them safe after registration although, as I said above, they proved very useful. Perhaps I should give them to our solicitor to keep safe? We did not need the deeds of our other property when we sold the land, the solicitors only needed the land registry documentation.

[woofgang]

I agree, don't just trust what it says. Once the land is registered, check that the details are correct and make any alterations that are needed.
The great advantage is that you then don't have to worry about safe storage of bits of paper.
I am a huge believer in DIY but in theses circs, given that the cost is a small percentage of the value of the house, I would get it done by an expert. Do ask the expert though what redress you will have if they do it wrong...this is what you are paying the money for.

[237SJ]

No, they`re not that important if the place is registered with the Land Registry. Our house wasn`t though and as the solicitors had lost the deeds we had a few problems as we needed to sell the house when my Dad died. All the solicitor had managed to find was a copy of a conveyance. I think those document containers (from Staples and the like) are a pretty good place to store anything important though.

[LoftyLottie]

Agree with Woofy. Our building society registered our property when we took on a top up mortgage. They used the plans of our house as it was in the 1950's and it caused a great deal of problems. We should really get it registered, and we will do before we sell, and we will use a licenced conveyor (cheaper than a solicitor) and thoroughly inspect the drawings. The Land Registry do not take any responsibility for drawings being inaccurate which is why drawings cannot be used for legal wrangles.

[LoftyLottie]

I meant we should get it reregistered!!

[woofgang]

Lottie, is the registration now correct? cos if it is then you don't need to worry.

[Im a BusyBee]

How do i find a reputable person/company able to do this for me? or can anyone recommend someone?

[LoftyLottie]

No it's not correct Woofy. Still showing the 50's plans, and is our neighbours which is why he said we had stolen his garden. Since the 50's both the house and garden have changed shape and altered. He hadn't a leg to stand on because land registry plans showing how the houses were in the 50's mean absolutely nothing. We will get it reregistered with an accurate plan if and when we sell.

We should have asked the building society to show us the plans when they submitted all the documentation to the Land Registry.

[LoftyLottie]

BusyBee, Most solicitors employ conveyancers.

[LoftyLottie]

See bottom of page of this link

http://www.conveyancer.org.uk/

[gness]

We discovered that a third of our land wasn`t registered. Down to a useless solicitor. We registered it but had to wait twelve years for full ownership. When I came to sell after ten years I had to take out insurance to protect the land from anyone appearing with a claim on it.

[Im a BusyBee]

I feel ours may get slightly complicated.....we have lived here for well over 20 years and have always used the same local solicitors. Over this time we have bought land to extend our garden from a neighbour. We have also bought our adjoining property which has always been rented out. So over the years the solicitors have carried out various things for us. More recently we tried to update our will. My husband has no idea of my investments and i asked that this be kept confidential between the solicitor and myself so that when my husband was also at the meeting this would not be mentioned. I might also add that the whole purpose of updating the will was to ensure our house would not be sold if and when anything happens to both of us (another long story.....its been in my family for generations and generations and our son would like to live there). Firstly on a joint appointment the solicitor read out to my husband and i ALL of my investments!!!!!!! After making a bit of a fuss another solicitor at the practice took over our wills.....on reading the draft it reads that everything has to be sold and then split which was the reason of updating the wills to avoid this happening. Also when buying the extended garden, which could quite comfortably go with either our property or our nextdoor one, we were not asked what property to register it to (i would, at that time perferred it to stand alone) but it was assumed it was to go with ours and registered as such. So you see we have lost faith totally in these people we have used for 30 years and im not sure who to place our trust in going forward.

[LoftyLottie]

Start again with a new team of solicitors! Ask the CAB perhaps who they would recommend.

What a nighmare for you.

[buildersmate]

Lotty has covered off most of this; the other thing worth adding is that are you absolutely sure your land is not registered with the LR?

Compulsory registration on transfer has been around for donkeys' years now and unless you live in Scotland (where I don't have a clue how it works) the very last administrative areas to do this occurred on 1 December 1990 - 22 years ago.

This means that ANY land transfer after the date of compulsory registration for the area in question could not occur using merely deeds - the LR had to be involved and the land registered. You say you've been there over 20 years so you can check the list (below) for your area, but the more recent land you purchased must be registered (it will have its own land title and number) and so must the purchase of the adjacent property.

The list for all England and Wales is here:
http://www.landregist...des/practice-guide-51

It is not uncommon for building societies to hold deeds for land that is registered - even though it is unnecessary (but a useful reference document, as others have said).

[Im a BusyBee]

thank you all for your helpfulness! only just got back on computer - buildersmate i said exactly that to my husband last night.....Apart from putting in our number/name and postcode to see if we have the option of buying reports how else do i know my house is registered? Another useful exercise for me i think would be to buy the report for my house just to check the garden is actually with it. But how do i buy it if it says there is no information available beside my address? Sorry hope this makes sense, i feel im waffling lol.

[buildersmate]

What you are probably referring to is this website.
https://eservices.lan...jPWDU_P0C7IdFQG9k5Tz/
You can use it to check whether LR finds a record of your property (if it does then it is definitely registered) but you don't have to buy it. It doesn't tell you the LR number until after you download the record.
However if you don't find it using the search, it doesn't necessarily mean the property isn't registered, just that the search can't find it. This has happened to me. It is fine if you happen to live at 49 Acacia Ave, Snodgrass-on-Sea, but rural properties without a conventional address it seems to sometimes miss.
If you do the search, can't find it and yet the date you moved in is later than the date of compulsory registration of your district (see the link I gave you to find out), it is worth phoning the LR office that covers the area where you live to ask - they are quite helpful with laypeople.