Anyone purchased an unregistered property

[theclampits]

And how long it might take for it to be registered with the land registry with no original deeds? Our vendors are having to send a ‘statement of truth’ to the land registry because their solicitors have lost the original deeds. We haven’t even had the draft contracts and then this has only been discovered in the last couple of weeks. Very annoying !

My last property had possessory title because in the past there was an old dilapidated property built on land that had been abandoned. The next door neighbour fenced the whole lot off and knocked the dilapidated property down and built a new property on it (adverse possession).

As the seller couldn't supply deeds to the land, because he'd never owned it, I could only purchase with possessory title. The indemnity policy that the seller paid for is to provide enough funds to fight a claim, if there ever was one from a long lost relative.

There was a slight risk, but the solicitor and mortgage lender were unconcerned. The dilapidated property hadn't been touched since the 60s so the risk was very small.

Lived there for 14 years and upgraded the title to Absolute when I came to sell.

In my opinion (am not a lawyer), if these people have lived there as long as you say, then the risk is also very small considering they say they do own it, i.e. they haven't stolen it via adverse possession!

Indemnity insurance is paid for by your vendor. There was no impact on cost of building/content insurance.

I just want to help you think this through logically as I understand how anxiety provoking it is to hear, especially when estate agents are not versed in what this means.

The conveyancers and land registry will assess the vendors claim on the house in full and they are only going to issue possessory titles if they think it is legally warranted. They will simply decline the title if they do not have evidence. So you already have that whole process to safeguard you. Land registry are not going to give our a possessory title willy-nilly for the sale of it.

You have to think carefully though the logic of the situation. Is it more likely that:

1. The vendors have knowingly transferred the title to someone else, but are now pretending they haven't to profit from the sale and are hoping the "real" owners don't notice.
2. The "real" owners of the title deeds are somehow completely aware they own the house and will suddenly become aware in the next 12 years to make a claim, despite them probably needing to be involved somewhere down the line of actually owning the house in the first place
3. The "real" owners do know they own the property but are keeping quiet to steal the house from you after it's sold...rather than just stopping the sale now and taking possession. Because for some reason they just love drama?

Or 4. The owners are the real owners, they have genuinely lost the deeds, and the legal process will establish their likely ownership through possessory title and you get absolute title in due course. It's never an issue ever again.

@ThatLoudSquidthank you and I know you make sense, it’s just worrying isn’t it thinking you don’t own the actual property for so many years and the what ifs!
I did ring my solicitor back and ask her what the chances are for which title, she said it depends what evidence is given, it could well be we got the title absolute but just won’t know until it’s done.

Good luck with what you decide. When I was in this position a year ago I really struggled to find any useful information online and fear/the unknown was causing me to panic! But if I'd followed my threat instinct, i'd have thrown away the chance of living in a great house for no real logical reason. When I saw your post, I was keen to share my experience to help someone else in the same scenario! Best wishes for the next steps on you home journey!

I really appreciate you sharing, it helps having a real person share their experience! I know the chances are so slim, and I don’t want to walk away from this house, so we might just carry on as normal

@ThatLoudSquidhi, I was wondering if you could answer a question for me as I can’t find any info online. With your possesory title was a boundary lined out ? Also, are you able to start any building works like extensions etc ?

Yes part of the land reg process was confirming the boundaries (as you do with any sale). I can't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to do an extension - you do actually still own the property after all. We have done building work on our house without issue and registered it with building regs (not an extension) - no issues.

This is great thank you. I was more thinking about planning permission and if the possesory title would cause an issue

The Planning Department do not check the title so don't worry!

Oh even better !! I just wondered how they know if your extension is appropriate for the building etc