Conveyance of a property

[violetmartini]

Hello,
Looking for a bit of advice please. I've found two documents whilst sorting through my parents house deeds. One refers to the home we know they own and is titled Assessment (or assignment?) of property. The other refers to the flat downstairs from theirs and is titled Conveyance of a property. Despite much googling I can't work out what this means. Both deeds show a transfer from previous owners to my parents. What does the conveyance of a property mean to my parents? Thanks in advance!

I think you’ll need to take the documents to a solicitor probably.

Do they own the downstairs flat and rent it out? Or perhaps the freehold?

Can you check land registry to see who owns the property?

Sounds like it could be the deeds. If they've lived there a long time the property might be unregistered but I would expect there to be more documents.

You can check if the property is registered at the Land Registry.

Sounds like at some point ownership of the property (or of the freehold) was transferred to your parents. Are you sure they don’t own it? Perhaps they sold it. Best to ask a conveyancer

Thanks for your replies. What would it mean if they held the freehold but not the property? The flat in question is for sale but there have been some questions regarding legal ownership

The owner of the property should be registered with the land registry. I think you can get information about past owners too

if they own the freehold it means the people who own the flat will own it leasehold. Im no expert but it could mean that the people have to lease it from your parents - ie pay a certain amount every however long to renew the lease?

as pp said, check land registry.

What do your parents think they own?

They think they own the flat above this one only but this document seems to imply they have some kind of claim over the lower flat. With it being for sale we are questioning how it will affect them and if they need to do anything. They were contacted by a solicitor a while back asking if they knew who owned the flat as they couldn't find any records and none seem to be available. They thought nothing of it until the flat has gone up for sale and they have found this 'conveyance of a property' document

It's quite common in buildings split into flats, especially where there are two flats, for each to own the freehold of the other and for the flats themselves to be leasehold. It's a way of making the flat owners jointly responsible for the maintenance and repair of the fabric of the whole building. If you're the downstairs flat owner/leaseholder you might not want to pay for roof repairs if you're not directly affected by a roof problem for example. If you're the freeholder, you have to maintain/repair it.

Look on this website to see if either property is registered: www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

Copies of the title cost £3 each.

If nothing comes up, they'll need to employ a solicitor to work out the unregistered title(s) for them.