Inheritance of Unregistered Property / Land
Discussion
A question for those with knowledge of the situation - advice appreciated please.
My father passed away recently and at some point in the future I will need to decide what to do with the family home, the likelihood is that I will sell it. I'm Executor and sole beneficiary, no other living relatives. The property is not registered with the Land Registry (as far as I am aware / can tell) and I have the original deeds.
I have had a look at Gov.UK and it seems there is a process that I can follow to register the land (in my name), along with the usual fees for doing so. My question is that if I am going to sell in the not so distant future, is there any value in doing this or would it simply be handled by the solicitor when I come to sell?
My father passed away recently and at some point in the future I will need to decide what to do with the family home, the likelihood is that I will sell it. I'm Executor and sole beneficiary, no other living relatives. The property is not registered with the Land Registry (as far as I am aware / can tell) and I have the original deeds.
I have had a look at Gov.UK and it seems there is a process that I can follow to register the land (in my name), along with the usual fees for doing so. My question is that if I am going to sell in the not so distant future, is there any value in doing this or would it simply be handled by the solicitor when I come to sell?
I'm a property lawyer, not a probate lawyer. I've bought a few properties for clients recently which were probate sales and it seems to be commonplace that the probate solicitors get an unregistered property registered before sale. It's not strictly necessary but from my point of view, I don't need to check with a probate colleague that everything is in order in quite the same way.
Basically you don't have to, but it might be easier for a smooth transaction to do so. And if you'd want to stay in the property yourself rather than sell, you'd want to register it in your name anyway.
Basically you don't have to, but it might be easier for a smooth transaction to do so. And if you'd want to stay in the property yourself rather than sell, you'd want to register it in your name anyway.
You can check whether the property is registered by going online to the Land Registry website and doing a "map search".
If the unregistered title is simple and complete (i.e. the deeds) there's no point registering before you sell. However, if there's anything tricky - like uncertainty over boundaries, uncertainty over rights of way etc - then you want to try to get it sorted beforehand.
Sooner or later you'll need a solicitor/conveyancer to sell the property so why not start the ball rolling now? In other words, get the solicitor to review the deeds (which they'll have to do sooner or later so you won't be paying twice) and advise you whether to register now or to wait.
If the unregistered title is simple and complete (i.e. the deeds) there's no point registering before you sell. However, if there's anything tricky - like uncertainty over boundaries, uncertainty over rights of way etc - then you want to try to get it sorted beforehand.
Sooner or later you'll need a solicitor/conveyancer to sell the property so why not start the ball rolling now? In other words, get the solicitor to review the deeds (which they'll have to do sooner or later so you won't be paying twice) and advise you whether to register now or to wait.
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