Property deeds missing?

[cheeseontoastandbrownsauce]

We're looking at buying a property and apparently there are a couple mock pages missing that would show if there are any covenants on the property. The house isn't too old and the sellers have offered to pay for an indemnity policy. Is this ok to go ahead with?

Bump

Anyone?

I wouldn’t without knowing what the Covenants are.

Is it registered at Land Registry.

Maybe repost in Legal Matters?

I thought it was not so important these days because you can always get a copy from the Land Registry. But I'm not a lawyer.

They're all online nowadays arent they?

Not all properties are registered with the land registry, I'm trying to buy one, it has to be done before we can complete, so I presume the solicitors only have whatever paper deeds the seller has provided.

^trying to buy one that isn't

If it was last sold more than about 20 years ago it may well not be registered online. Does your conveyencing solicitor not have an opinion?

Sometimes Land registry are missing pages (not supplied to them originally or just not copied onto the computer) but the covenants are referred to elsewhere so they're existence is known about.

How old are the covenants referred to? As that might influence how likely someone is to turn up to enforce them?

"The house isn't too old"

How old? The newer the house is the more likely that the details should be on Land Registry.

What's your solicitor's view? Are you getting a mortgage? If so, is your lender happy to lend on the property? If the lender will lend with indemnity policy in place the chances are you'll be fine. It's worth finding out is neighbouring properties are registered and if they have covenants. The chances are high that the covenants that apply to the neighbours will apply to your house too.

Definitely try and find out what those missing pages say if you can! When we bought our flat our solicitors (who were awful) didn't send the full deed and it missed out a page about a doubling ground rent clause! So we had a shock when it increased. Thankfully the management company sent us the full deed so had all the documents when we sold but better to know what you're buying and legally committing to do if you can. Hopefully it'll just be one of those ones that says you can't hang your washing in the front garden or something but better to know if you can.

Are there other properties on the same street with the same date on the deeds lodged with the land registry? They might be similar documents. I’ve dealt with this using an indemnity policy before but it’s worth checking.

Thanks all. We haven't got solicitor as yet we've had an offer accepted and now been told that it's the transfer deed that is missing, the pages with the covenants information is missing. I don't know anything about deeds... The sellers are prepared to get indemnity policy to cover this. I am confused as I thought indemnity policies transferred from one sale to the next but the estate agent said not?! Apparently the current owners bought the house without an indemnity policy. Sorry if this is making no sense!

So if it’s a relatively new property the owner turnover seems quite high?

Good grief, don’t take legal advice from an estate agent!

Indemnity polices of that type are for the house and generally (but not always) last forever. It sounds like the sellers are only now aware of the problem, so haven’t taken out a policy yet.

Thanks all, we decided not to go ahead. I know that indemnity policies are not tied to the individual but to the property. I believe if the sellers were aware of the problem they should have tried to rectify or at least have correct information to hand. We didn't want to start paying for legal advice and start having hassle before we even got started.

We definitely weren't going to take legal advice from an estate agent.

Sorry to hear you’ve decided not to proceed @cheeseontoastandbrownsauce

We had a restrictive covenant on our property (built circa 1907) that hadn’t been properly registered with the deed. The seller had the original paper copy, which said that we weren’t permitted to sell alcohol from the property (it was originally Quaker land). However, because it wasn’t properly registered our solicitor wanted us to have an indemnity policy.

This is usually paid for by the seller, however, ours refused to pay and we were keen to buy the house so we did. It was around the £250 if I remember correctly - we bought just before Covid hit.

All that being said, they’re not a massive deal (although of course your conveyancing solicitor should be consulted).

Our neighbours told me they have one on their property that says gypsies aren’t permitted to live there!

Our house has no deeds. We weren't even made aware of it before we moved in! There's an indemnity policy against army issues arising from it. I can't see a problem really. I wouldn't write off a house for it