Can anyone help me with a conveyancing question?

[Tiggly]

Help! I have tried to contact the solicitor to ask him what the answer is to this question but he has already left the office for the day so I thought someone here might be able to help me!

I have a list of questions sent by the solicitor in order for the HIP to be completed on our house and the last question I don't really understand / know he answer to? Here goes:
"Epitome of Title: Registered / Unregistered"

What is this asking about?
Thanks in advance!
Tiggly

It's a technical legal question for your solicitor - he should be answering this not you! He should really draft the respnses for the HIP and send the answers to you to check before sending it out to the Seller solicitors or talk you through them.

The answer is that they are asking you for evidence of yoru ownership (i.e title) to the property. I can explain in more detail (it's a little legalistic, so bear with me.....!)

An "Epitome of Title" is a posh name for list attaching all the title deeds and documents relating to your property that the Seller needs to see and your solicitor needs to supply to the Seller. An Epitome is only relevant to "unregistered land" i.e when those title deeds and documents are not registered with HM Land Registry. Almost all houses in the UK will be registered at the Land Registry (very few are not) so this probably is not relevant to you.

Your solicitor will already know which category your house is in and whether it is registered or unregistered. If it is registered (HIGHLY likely) he'll get the details from the Land Registry. If not, you will have a bundle of smelly deeds in yoru house evidencing your UNregistered title.

Thank you very much GryffinGirl! Can I ask you a little more?

We are the sellers of the property and as it is the same solicitors we used when we bought this house then they may have the records in order to answer this question themselves?If I remember last time we had to go in to the solicitors office and answer a lot of questions about who wll be living at the house, how the ownership will be split etc, is this the information that they mean? I remember mention of the Land Registry at that meeting which is what made me think of it.

Thank you very much for helping me out! Much appreciated!
cheers
Tiggly

bump with thanks!

Solicitors have to keep their records for six years at least, so they should still have the files from last time if yu bought the property in the last six years. Longer ago than that and they may not have them. However, the chances are the files are held in a warehouse off-site and it takes time to get hold of them and go through the old file. It's probably just as easy to ask the questions again, plus HIPs are new and have different questions/information requests from the old pre-contract enquiries which solicitors used to use. Also, things could have changed in the meantime, so they do have to go through the process again.

If the house in joint names of you and your husband at the Land Registry, the solicitor dealing with the sale will need to know if you own the property as "joint tenants" or "tenants in common" - this may be one of questions they asked when you bought the house, i.e how you want to own it.

Owning the house as joint tenants means the sale proceeds will automatically be split 50/50 regardless of who pays what for the mortgage. Tenants in common means that when it is sold you would get different proportions according to an agreed split (e.g. 60/40). If you own the property as tenants in common, you will have entered into an agreement which specifies how the proceeds are split. If you have not signed any such agreement, the fall back presumption is that you will be joint tenants and 50/50 will apply.

HTH - let me know if you have more questions. House sales can be a nightmare