Need some help regarding feeds and land registration.

[Imtoooldforallthis]

I'm hoping someone can help. We are currently in the process of selling a retail property. Been in the family over 100 years. We can't find the original paper deeds. There is a piece of land that is unregistered, solicitors are suggesting we would have to repurchase this (who from?) and could take up to a year. The land definately belonged to the family as original shop was on this land before it was demolished and a new shop was built behind in the 60's, can anyone advise on what we do next?

Sorry that should be 'Deeds'

can anyone advise on what we do next?

That would be your solicitor. Why haven't they told you?

We are trying to speak to them, but as oer usual they work to there own timescale, and we think they made an error in not registering it so just trying to find out any information myself.

Please see the Land Registry’s practice guide for your situation www.gov.uk/government/publications/first-registration-of-title-where-deeds-have-been-lost-or-destroyed

You will need to gather a lot of evidence about the unregistered land and it’s history. Things like photos of the original shop/land, the plans for the shop, old maps that show the original shop (ordnance survey may be able to help). Given the shop/land has been in the family for 100 years you should have a lot of evidence (unless you are all rabid declutterers 😂).

You can also contact Land Registry direct and they will be helpful.
HTH

Thank you, spoken to our solicitors who have said the same thing, they are saying it could take up to a year due to backlogs.

Not sure if anyone can help as solicitor couldn't but maybe someone can come up with an ingenious solution. A mistake has been made on the boundaries of the property which is now showing as unregistered. We are trying to to find a copy of the deeds that shows the original boundary so we can find out when the error was made and apply to land registry to amend it. We do not now when the land was first registered, can anyone think if a way we can find this out?

I assumed from your original OP part of the land is registered and a small part is unregistered. If this is the case Land Registry will have the deeds when the registered part was first registered.
www.gov.uk/get-information-about-property-and-land/copies-of-deeds

Yes there is a small area unregistered, this was never a separate peice it should always been part of the plot and buildings original boundaries. In fact this had a building on it until the 60s. I've been told by solicitors that original paper deeds are destroyed when the land is first registered.

We had this on a house we were purchasing (the seller hadn't noticed that part of the land that came with the house was not within the deeds when they had bought). We took out an indemnity policy (paid for by the seller); importantly, one that would still cover us while we set out to regularise the situation (we had to speak to an actual underwriter to get this policy - the standard ones demand you keep schtumm). We also got a statutory declaration from the current owner that they had always occupied the land.

A couple of years later, we started the process. It was straightforward, we sent photos of the land, the boundary hedge, the statuatory declaration, and aerial photos from Google across the years. A surveyor from Land Registry came out. It took about 3 months start to finish.

So could you provide an indemnity policy, and statutory declaration to your buyers when it comes to it?

Insurance is your best bet here, as the land registry has massive delays and backlogs at the moment.

@Imtoooldforallthis

Yes there is a small area unregistered, this was never a separate peice it should always been part of the plot and buildings original boundaries. In fact this had a building on it until the 60s. I've been told by solicitors that original paper deeds are destroyed when the land is first registered.

Land Registry will definitely have copies of the deeds that formed part of the first registration application. According to the website register queries, which is what this is, are taking 2 to 3 days.

Your solicitor is referring to the backlog of new title applications, which are in some cases taking that long to complete.

However if it's holding up a sale you can ask for the process to be expedited which means that they have to look at the case within 10days.

It is possible that LR have a copy of the deeds and you can request them for a small fee.

Thank you I'm going to look I to getting a copy of deeds from the land registry.

There are no deeds with the Land registry our solicitor has already checked.

That’s a shame as I thought they retained copies of the relevant deeds at first registration.