There's a messy property situation in my family that is likely to cause a major fall out in the near future. I'm hoping someone will be able to help me understand what's happening.
My grandparents bought a house in the 1960s. Apparently they bought it outright, no mortgage (not sure whether this is relevant). My aunt (I'll call her A) lived there with her parents. GF died in 1979, no will apparently. GM died in 1990, again no will apparently. A continued to live in the house and has done ever since. A has 2 siblings, a sister (I'll call S) and a brother (I'll call B), both are married with kids, have their own properties etc. Apparently there was a conversation around the time that GM died about the house being sold and split between the 3 of them but A didn't want to move so nothing was done. Nothing has ever been formalised. There has been some bad feeling about it from S and B over the years but they never did anything about it.
Fast forward 27 years. A is now elderly and wants to downsize to something more manageable (the house is large, 5 beds).
Nobody knows where the deeds to the house are, seems they are lost. Solicitor has checked the land registry, not registered, which apparently isn't unusual for properties bought prior to the 1970s.
Solicitor says A can apply for possessory title because she has lived in the house for the last 27 years. I've done a bit of googling about this but I'm struggling to understand what the implications are in this particular situation.
Would possessory title mean that A owns the house outright? Or would S & B still be entitled to a third each? Will this need to be unravelled all the way back to GF death in 1979 in order to sort it out?
A will be having another appointment with the solicitor soon and I've offered to go with her as she gets very confused nowadays. I'd like to get a bit of an understanding before the appointment. Can anyone help?