When you buy a house how do you ensure you own it and you have the correct legal rights, eg tenants in common

[Dickybow321]

Just that, really.
We've just bought a house. The conveyancer was extremely incompetent ( overcharging us by 1.5k is just the tip of the iceberg) so now we're in the new house and I've seen the mortgage statements so that's the only reason why I know for sure that I have a humungous mortgage. But how do I know for sure I actually own the house? I have never seen any documents from the solicitor his self. For example, I know I sent lots of documents like warranties to the solicitor of the person buying my house. I have received nothing from the people I bought off. No certificates or anything. How do you know for sure that you own the house? How do you know you are 'tenants in common ' as you requested ? How do you know if your trust deed is operational?

Ask for copies of everything.
You should have received a written report from the conveyance with copies of any guarantee s available before exchange of contracts. Get confirmation from the conveyancer that any gauarantees hav e now been formally assigned to you, and get copies of the executed trust deed and of the new land registry title. If you have issues wit h getting copies of anything you need, write to the senior partner. If necessary you can get a copy of the new title direct from the land registry, but give it a month or so from completion to give time for the processes to be completed.

But how did you exchange contracts without seeing any paperwork?

Look on the Land Registry Website as delphinium said - it should ( once updated ) show that the freehold is yours. As to Tenants in common - I suspect that is more for your solicitor / mortgage holder ( if any) to say
The Deed of the house ( if bought outright ) should be with you , if via a mortgage your provider should have them )

I say this just from having bought some houses - I am not a legal expert
but best wishes .

DelphiniumBlue

But how did you exchange contracts without seeing any paperwork?

When you ask it like that it sounds absurd. But you pay a solicitor and assume that they are doing everything for you that they should do. We have not received any guarantees or paperwork at all. The house was refurbished in 2017. Apparently it has all the building regs (it was changed from a 3 bed semi to a six bed semi) but we have not seen or been given any copies of the certificates.

We saw the search reports. We signed the mortgage deed. I don't remember signing something that said we were tenants in common.

Once we apparently exchanged and completed we didn't receive any other paperwork. Is this normal?

Basil it is bought with a mortgage but I was wondering if we should at least have sight of the deeds to ensure we actually own it. Yes, we have a mortgage, but sometimes people are incompetent and honestly if somebody managed to get a mortgage on a house they didn't own, would you guys actually be surprised?!

You must have seen documents. What about the contract of sale you signed? If you haven't signed a contract then your name will not be on the deeds.

Easiest option is to ask your solicitor. But failing that you can obtain the information you are looking for online from the Land Registry. If I remember rightly it cost us £3. You don't need to own the property - anyone can get this information if the house sale was recent - it may not show up yet.

Hi notangelinajolie
Yes I saw and signed contracts but what I mean is that I have nothing as a receipt apart from the (wrong) bill. No certificate to say I now own a house, just a mortgage statement. But surely a mortgage statement is separate from this:it just shows that I have a loan secured against a property that I own. Why have I not got something in writing to show that I own this building? The bank might keep the title deeds bc they own more of the house than I do, but surely I should have sight of the deeds? What about the tenants in common stuff? I'm assuming my solicitor has got it right. What even is the document to show how it's held?

As notangelina says, check with your solicitor/conveyancer. No one on here is going to be able to give you answers.

You should have a completion statement from your solicitor, plus a letter from them confirming where the deeds will be held - that will normally be either with your mortgage provider or your solicitor, but they should be able to give you the info easily enough.
The deeds will state the terms ownership (tenants in common or whatever).

It sounds like you are concerned about something?

Hi single
The reason I have asked on here instead of asking my solicitor is because a) I have not received the things I have mentioned in my posts and it has been 7 weeks since we completed. There is not a definitive guide anywhere as to what you are supposed to receive. So if you pay thousands to a professional and you go through months of stress and then are finally told it has gone through you just go along with it. If somebody turned around and said you're on an undercover programme and you're so gullible...you don't own anything, I would have no leg to stand on! , 2)as I said they have overcharged us by £1500. The last I spoke to them was 10 days ago when they only admitted to £650 overcharged and asked if we would agree to that they would refund it ASAP. In other words they are so incompetent that they can't even charge correctly...

We paid for the trust deed up front and that hasn't even been drawn up yet and as I said we moved in 7 weeks ago. If my DP turned round and said actually he'd quite like my share of the equity too in the event that we split, what could I actually do about it as we haven't actually signed anything and yet apparently have bought the house.

should have a completion statement from your solicitor, plus a letter from them confirming where the deeds will be held - that will normally be either with your mortgage provider or your solicitor, but they should be able to give you the info easily enough.
The deeds will state the terms ownership (tenants in common or whatever).

I have two completion statements because I queried the first and then paid the second but am currently disputing it. So it doesn't seem to be a legal thing.

No letter saying where the deeds will he held so I will definitely chase this up

AFAIK/remember, the copy doc pack comes through with completion statement, because land registry docs are awaited once registration taken place. Then copies of title deed and charge cert with mortgage lenders name on, and your land registry entry.
I would have expected you to have this by now though.

Have you phoned to chase?

There is no such thing as deeds anymore unless the property was unregistered. Unregistered properties are properties or land that has not been conveyed since 1925. The ownership is reflected on the Land Registry which is a matter of public record. You can check on there for a cost of four pounds or thereabouts. Your solicitor should have provided you with the conveyancing file once the TR1 is completed and all payments madee. You should have received a copy of the TR1, the sales contract, copies of searches including the solicitors advice about anything relevant in the searches, ànd detailed advice about any rights of way, covenants or easements relating to the property. Ask your solicitor to provide you with a copy of the conveyancing file.

No I haven't, sheik, but what I'm trying to say is that I had no idea I needed to ask for these things. You assume the experts you're paying thousands to will be supplying you and or explaining what they should be suppling you with!

...and absolutely they should! Have you got a completion statement with all costs listed and copies of anything (as above, local/land registry searches etc)?

Yes, check the land registry. But if anything wasn't in order then the bank wouldn't have released the money for you to purchase it.

'conveyancing file'. Thank you, Jack. What rang alarm bells for me was when our vendor was going to her solicitor to 'look at the file'. I then worried that we had not been asked to look at any file!

Dont panic about the trust deed. The trust still exists on the terms you agreed, but the document might be needed in the future to evidence that. If anything happens in the meantime you should be fine. The trust deed doesnt have to be drafted at the same time, but a reasonably competent solicitor can run one up in 18 to 24 minutes. Have you made a formal complaint yet in writing mentioning the legal ombudsman? That usually focuses their mind.

Than you vim, but the thing is you never truly know unless you see it in black and white so I really want to see in writing what my legal position is. I just think it's crazy that there's no requirement for conveyancers to send you documents. You could be spending millions of pounds !

Thank you jack. That is what the firm has said. But I still think it is poor that they haven't yet drafted the deed trust despite lots of emails from us asking where it is. If one of us decided we didn't want to sign it then surely the other person would not have a legal leg to stand on if we broke up in the meantime? It's all academic, but still surely this is bad? As it stands there is a big difference between deposits put towards the mortgage.

To clarify, we haven't seen or signed a deed trust yet.

No, the trust already exists. The trust is what you have already agreed. The deed of trust document simply evidences what has been agreed. There is already some evidence of what you have agreed as you have already asked the for the document to be drawn up. That is evidence of your intentions. So legally you are fine, but it should be done at their earliest convenience.

Thank you, Jack. There are lots of emails asking where the deed trust is. We both sold houses to buy the house we are now in, but they used the proceeds from my house sale to buy the house we bought together. My parter sold his house about two months before and we have used his money to buy furniture and pay the stamp duty and legal fees. It's all pretty messy!