Conveyancing advice re land registry

[WowIlikereallyhateyou]

Purchased a property 10 yrs ago and allowed my brother to live there with pepper corn rent. He has given notice to terminate agreement and has moved. I have just found out that the title to the property i purchsed has been registered wrongly in his name at land registry. I have proof of cash transfer/ will/ lease all written. Clearly an error on part or LR or solicitor, is this something that can be sorted reasonably quickly as i want to sell and cannot if it is not in my name! Please help any conveyancers out there.

Get a copy of the transfer that you signed when you bought it. Go to the original conveyancer solicitor and get them to contact the land reg. As there is an impending sale HMLR will expedite your application and should start dealing with it in 10 working days. It still may take several weeks though as they aren't particularly speedy.

I honestly don't mean for this to sound patronising at all, but are you definitely not listed under section B: Proprietorship Register under Title Absolute?

I only ask because we recently had a scare like this. Company doing works for us needed to check ownership and claimed we weren't on the deeds, some other couple were. After a mad scramble to check, it turns out they were looking at section 1, not section 2. Section 1 had details of the original landowners and leaseholders, as well as conditions of the lease. But we were definitely listed as holders of title absolute under section 2. I'm clueless about this stuff though so had to check the government website and sense check it with friends. 😅

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-read-a-title-register-and-title-plan/how-to-read-a-title-register

Again, apologies if you're more savvy than me and know that the deeds are definitely wrong. Just thought I'd mention it in case I can save you some worry!

Unfortunately after 10 years the solicitor who acted for you when you purchased the property will be unlikely to have retained copies of your transaction. Most solicitor firms destroy files after 6 years.

So, your options will probably be for your brother to "sell" the property in his name and for him to transfer the funds to you on completion, or your brother signs a transfer form to transfer the ownership from his name to your name, but that will take a few months at Land Registry before you can sell onward. It might necessitate paying stamp duty too, depending on the value.

How would the LR know your brother's name, unless he was listed somewhere on the TR1? The fact that you let him live there is not something the LR would have any knowledge of?

if your solicitor has been negligent then they can arrange for any costs including stamp duty to be paid to put it right. Indeed in theory your brother owns the property now and he could insist they buy it from him.

However the transfer would have been in his name that you signed....

It’s not a land registry error it’s a solicitor error. Can you transfer the property back to you for nil value? I doubt if the solicitor will still have the file but there might be something on computer records. It’s worth contacting the solicitor’s office for advice.