How to deal with unregistered titles
This article was written for and published as original content in the East Anglian Daily Times property section.
Although unregistered titles are gradually disappearing, there are still many of them in existence and they present unique challenges when you are buying or selling a house.
When you buy a property, it is compulsory to register ownership at Land Registry. Compulsory registration has been in place since 1990 and so any properties bought before then could still be unregistered.
This does not mean that they cannot be sold. It is perfectly acceptable to sell an unregistered title, but it does present difficulties. In order to sell, you will need to hold the original deeds and pass these to your Solicitor. In many cases, the document transferring ownership to you may refer to earlier documents and so your Solicitor would need to check that the deeds are complete.
Sometimes the original deeds have been lost or destroyed and we would recommend that you check with your previous Solicitor and also, if you used to have a Mortgage, to make an enquiry of the Lender.
If your deeds still cannot be traced then you would need to consult a Solicitor urgently to see if they can still register you with a lower grade of title (known as Possessory).
The problem that many buyers have with unregistered land is that following completion, the obligation would fall on them to register the title. Due to current backlogs, Land Registry frequently take 12 to 18 months to complete the registration. During that period the buyer would have no proof of ownership and would not be able to sell or mortgage the property. The Land Registry are able to expedite applications where they have proof that the property had been sold or that a mortgage offer had been issued.
It is for this reason that buyers now commonly ask sellers to apply for Voluntary First Registration before they sell. The reason is that a seller can ask Land Registry to expedite the application and if that is agreed, registration will normally happen within 1 - 2 months. The Buyer would then be able to buy the property as a registered title.
For more information on our conveyancing services, please call our expert property team on 01206 574431 or email enquiries@tsplegal.com