Lost House deeds

[homer123456]

Me and my family have encountered a very difficult problem in relation to house deeds, my grandma passed away last month and so we are trying to tidy up the loose ends but our problem is she owns a house and their appears to be no house deeds, ( just a receipt from the builder confirming the sale back in 1957)several years ago she said the deeds were with a high street bank but the bank has no knowledge of them, The house is not registered with the land registry and the citizens advice and law society have not been able to trace the original solicitors who dealt with the sale (mainly due to the property being bought in 1957 they to have passed away)) We turned to a solicitor as a last resort and he has told us we would be looking at around �1500 to reconstitute the deeds and apply the various searches (ouch) can anyone offer any help or advise it would be greatly appreciated were desperate. Kat

[dotjhawkes]

My bloke had to sort this out 3 years ago (well I did most of it), he had had a mortgage on the property though and so it was a lot easier to supply information on ownership. he had to go to the Land Registry, they have a ref. number for every property, and he had to sign and swear on oath that he was the owner and he took out this insurance policy over it as i recall. It was a lot of running about, but he didn't have to pay a solicitor to do it, he also used the electoral roll to show he had lived there a long time and the local authority were able to provide a letter saying they had sold him the house in 1979. It takes time but the Land Registry were very helpful and accessible.

[homer123456]

Thanks but i really have exhausted all land registry channels and they assure me the house has never been registered since it was built and therefore cannot help me, The solicitor who almost gave me a heart attack with his quote confirmed this to me yesterday, Surley their are lots of people in this kind of situation but we just dont know where to turn now, I guess ive inherited a house with no proof that im now the owner because i cant get deeds transfered when there are none and my gran never left a will, I really feel like im liveing in my home but also homeless :-(

[lady_p_gold]

Well I would ring around for a few more quotes, but if you have to pay this then I would have thought that the house would be worth a lot more and you would have peace of mind if it is all legally sorted out. If the worst came to the worst you could take out a loan for the legal fees and then when the house is yours you could easily get a very small mortgage to cover the costs. A land registry search would only cost a maximum of about �180 and that is the most expensive areas ... some are around �100.

[lady_p_gold]

Sorry Local Authority Land Charges search I meant ...

[dotjhawkes]

This doesn't sound right, the Land Registry have to give your property a reference number now, have you been on their site? If you go to their home page and put the address in at the search box, see what comes up.

[homer123456]

The land registry can only register the house if they have conclusive proof of ownership I:E deeds! They cant ask my grandma for other proof has she has passed away, hence another dilllema for us :-(

[dzug]

Do you know if your Grandma ever had a mortgage on the property?

If so the lender (if anyone can remember who it was) may have a record of what happened to the deeds when it was repaid.

Clutching at straws a bit.....

[stanleyman]

The builders receipt should be good evidence of ownership if her name is on it. The person who will inherit the land may also be able to make a claim to the property by registering it. Check out the Land registry website for details, could be cheaper than getting more deeds.

[buildersmate]

If you do here to the Land Registry website and download PDF document LRPG002, it will explain to you what you have to do for unregistered land where the deeds are lost. In my experience the LR people are pretty helpful and the fact that you aren't a solicitor should not put you off doing most if not all the work involved in this. Much of it is running around getting other supporting evidence to give to the LR. Obviously a solicitor can do this for you, but you can save yourself a load of fees by doing it yourself. Bear in mind that the solicitor will be expecting to spend no more than 8 hours actually working on this for the level of fee you quoted. Post again on AB if you want further help in understanding the terms.

http://www.landreg.gov.uk/publications/?pubtype=35

[homer123456]

Thank you all for your advise, I am going to follow builders mates advise and try the land registry again this morning, I just hope they accept proof of ownership even though my grandma has now passed away (you were right about the leg work, been trying to sort this out non stop for 10 days now) !!

[buildersmate]

Having read the document I referred to (above) through, the only part I think you will definitely have trouble doing without a solicitor is providing a so-called Statutory Declaration. These have to be overseen and witnessed by someone authorised as a Commissioner for Oaths. Its basically a sworn statement. Many solicitors are also Commissioners for Oaths and will do it for a fee (hopefully small).