Title register - does it get updated when someone dies?

[rabbitholez]

A family member is applying for a rent repayment order on a property they were renting. The HMO license expired during the tenancy and was not renewed. They are putting together the evidence pack and following advice to be very clear about who is the owner and who is the landlord.

We checked the title deed at the beginning of the tenancy in 2023 and again today and the owner name (O) remains the same. A person we understand to be his son (S), with the same surname and residential address as O, acts as landlord. He advertises the property, deals with the admin, and is named as the landlord on the tenancy doc. However, at his request, rent was paid to his mother (M), who also calls herself the landlord in some correspondence. We know there is a family business because S and M are directors of a registered property company with another person we assume to be a daughter (D). O is not a director of the property company, but he was the holder of the HMO license that expired and was not renewed.

As the property is still owned by O, we assume he is still alive but perhaps now too elderly to be involved in running the business. My question is, if he had died prior to 2023, is it likely that the property title would have been updated by now?

complicated As it would depend on probate and the will to pass the title on. Whilst changing the name in the register is handled quickly by HMLR getting probate as proof as to who the title should be passed to can take considerable time

Not necessarily. When my DM died, the title deeds only got changed when the house was eventually sold 26 months later.

Thanks. So if O's wife inherits the property and she continues to run it as a rental property the title wouldn't get changed?

If you inherit a property, once probate is granted, you inform Land Registry who send you a form to update the records, it takes ages, a solicitor can check for you or you can pay online to see who is on the title deeds

The Land Registry only find out that the owner has died if someone tells them e.g. applies to change the register or sells it or whatnot, was my understanding. So if no-one says anything the title won't change.

I am buying a house where the Title Deed shows a husband and wife as the owners of the property. The husband died 12 years ago. In this case as part of the conveyancing process, the wife had to produce his death certificate and in this case had been through probate.

Exactly the same for us back when we bought our current house. He had died 7 years before and among the conveyancing bumph and Report on Title we received from the solicitors was his death certificate.