How to find a house owner

[Thebestbakerwon2017]

Bit of a long shot

My DP mentioned that in his mums will he was left several properties. At the time (34 years ago) he was a teenager and didn’t investigate or have the knowledge as to what to do.

Anyone have any ideas of where to start. He thinks the solicitor will be dead by now.

Layman here but surely any property focused solicitor will be able to investigate for him. Sounds a bit bizarre he never investigated further. Who is managing the properties now. Does he not have any paperwork?

He needs to get a copy of the will, then he needs to get land registry docs for those properties.
Is his dad still alive? There must have been something in place when she dies - properties put into trust/someone put I. Place to manage the properties??
Does he know which properties they are eg does his Dad/nan/sibling currently live in them so it’s more a case of just proving he is the owner or is it he has no idea which properties so needs to find out what they are, who lives there and who is registered as owner??

Agreed it does sound stupid on his behalf but he said it was just a blur at the time.
He didn’t have a great deal of support and his mums death was quite sudden.

He really has no idea as to who has managed them all this time but has now decided to start investigating ( probably 30 years too late ! )

Is it possible something was done about them but he doesn't remember this? I can't imagine they were just "left".

Sounds fascinating though!

He has remembered the name of the solicitors who still are practicing so he’s going to phone them to try & trace the will.

Hopefully they can help !

If his mother had properties to leave the surely it will have gone through probate. A will is a public document once this has happened, anyone can get a copy. He can do it himself, no need for a solicitor.

Have a look here: www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

How intriguing, the solicitors should still have records but it seems very odd that if he does own properties he has had not a single piece of correspondence in the past 30 years.

If in England or Wales (and maybe Northern Ireland?), then try the Land Registry www.gov.uk/government/organisations/land-registry

If in Scotland www.ros.gov.uk/

But I have have no idea whether their records go back that far. I guess they should do - but I don't know how to access that (without checking).

Ooh what an exciting mystery!
Let us know what happens op (sorry I’m not much help)

Oops, I didn't think through my previous post very well, because until you know the address/es you won't be able to find whether they were owned by your DP's mum. Sorry I've been a bit of a numpty

But agree with PPs about checking out her Will and Probate.