Buying an Unregistered Property

[lineandsinker]

I’ve recently had an offer accepted on a property. Made aware at offer point that it was unregistered but deeds were in hand, etc., so the registering would run parallel with the conveyancing. No dramas.

Had a call from my solicitor today to say that the vendors cannot find a copy of the original title deeds - they have copies but not the original. The deeds were stored at the solicitors but was taken out 15 years ago for some (unknown) reason and was (according to vendor) returned a year later but solicitors have no record of this. And no deeds. The property has been owned by the vendor for 40+ years.

Should I just walk away from this now or is it something that can be resolved? I’ve paid out for a survey and also the initial fees to my solicitor. I’m also only in a short chain - first time buyers purchasing mine and onward purchase is chain free.

Feeling v. frustrated as have taken 2 months to have an offer accepted on anything I’ve offered on! Feels like an omen to stay put.

So they can't show that they own the property.
I think there is a way for the property to get registered, with a slightly less than optimal title, but can't recall the details of how this works. It might be backed up with some sort of indemnity insurance.
I'd have thought your solicitor needs to ask theirs how they intend to deal with this, and what steps they have already taken. I'm thinking various sworn declarations need to be drawn up and submitted to the Land Registry for their consideration.
In short, it might be possible but it will take time, who knows how long, or whether what they finally get will be an acceptable title. If you need to move anytime soon, I'd start looking for somewhere else.

The deeds to my first house were revealed to be missing once I had spent a fair bit of money on the purchase process. The vendor's solicitor had to recreate the deeds then the land registry gave a possessory title, rather than an absolute title. My solicitor thought the land registry were being very picky. I thought they were doing their job, this was always going to happen, and my solicitor didn't like it and had done her job properly she could have said that was what was going to happen.

It took six months to complete the purchase, which was painfully long at the time, although when we moved the process took four months, so maybe I just don't know how long these things take.

Before we sold the house seventeen years later, we were able to change the title to absolute. And we all lived happily every after!

Thank you both @DelphiniumBlue @Janek . You have made me feel slightly more reassured - although the vendors now want me to register the property myself on completion as not to delay their onward purchase by them pursuing the first registration themselves 🙄 Obviously my solicitors have told them to take a running jump to that request!

Yes agreed the vendors have to sort and they Will have the same issue with any purchaser so they just need to sort it !

I don't see how they can sell it to you for you to register it yourself. They've no proof they own it, currently!

I think the 'registering' is a bit of a red herring tbh. It's what happens now when houses are sold, but when I bought my (deedless) house in 2002 it was perfectly normal to buy an unregistered house. And it would be easy to register you as the new owners if there were some deeds. It was the lack of deeds that caused the hold up. Although I did completely believe that the deeds had been lost, I wasn't at all worried it was some kind of scam. Mainly because the house next door was owned by the same people, and those deeds were lost too!!!

As pp said, there was some kind of indemnity insurance purchased at the time, although exactly what that covered i'm not sure, because the house doubled in value in the first year. But luckily we never needed to find out!

My house original deeds were destroyed by enemy action in WW2. The solicitors where they were stored took a direct hit.

It was however registered under the new system years ago.

The vendors need to register before they can sell to you!

Hi OP, I'm a former property solicitor.

You can register a house on the basis of lost deeds and the LR will make an entry on the title to say that's what's happened. The vendor would need to provide as much evidence as possible of their period of ownership (e.g. council tax records, sometimes photographs of the property over the years etc. can help).

Title would be registered as Possessory, you can apply to upgrade it to Absolute after (from memory) 10 years has passed. I won't attempt to explain that in detail in an MN post, but your solicitor will be able to.

The vendor should really deal with the registration before the sale completes and provide you with indemnity insurance too.