Converting Paper House Deeds To Online?

[Scarletpimpofnel]

Elderly relative has owned their property for 70+ years and the deeds are in paper form held by a solicitor for the same time period.

The relative is keen to get the deeds converted to online with the Land Registry as they believe it will save whoever ultimately does the probate and sells the house time and cash outlay (albeit this recouped when the house sells).

Any thoughts on pros and cons between her sorting this now versus someone else sorting it post her death?

I assume she just needs to tell her solicitor to do it and pay a fee? What size of fee can be expected?

Many thanks.

[b14]

The solicitor will need to do it. It’s relatively uncommon these days - taking an unregistered title and registering it. But all England and Wales lawyers learn how to do it at law school (not that I remember myself…) so hopefully a sensible real estate lawyer can sort it relatively easily. No idea on cost I’m afraid, but it should be possible to get a fixed fee quote to do it, if all the deeds are present and correct.

[Scarletpimpofnel]

b14 said:

The solicitor will need to do it. It’s relatively uncommon these days - taking an unregistered title and registering it. But all England and Wales lawyers learn how to do it at law school (not that I remember myself…) so hopefully a sensible real estate lawyer can sort it relatively easily. No idea on cost I’m afraid, but it should be possible to get a fixed fee quote to do it, if all the deeds are present and correct.

Thanks. Appreciate a solicitor needs to do it. What I was trying to get at is, is it easier to get it done pre or post death?

[bigmowley]

The system is designed so that as titles come to market or get transferred there is a legal requirement to enter them onto the land registry which supercedes the old paper deeds. It’s been going on for so long now that it’s likely that the surrounding properties are already registered which sort of defines various boundaries, although these are not always right!
There are various costs potentially involved along with the basic solicitor’s fee including possible boundary surveys etc. I think that first registration of a title is free which helps although subsequent changes of title all incur some sort of fee. So the free one might be best kept in hand?

It’s an admirable thing to worry about but unless you are concerned that someone has pinched a bit of land then I cannot see much benefit in doing a voluntary registration. It will have to be done post death whatever happens so why not wait?

[Scarletpimpofnel]

bigmowley said:

The system is designed so that as titles come to market or get transferred there is a legal requirement to enter them onto the land registry which supercedes the old paper deeds. It’s been going on for so long now that it’s likely that the surrounding properties are already registered which sort of defines various boundaries, although these are not always right!
There are various costs potentially involved along with the basic solicitor’s fee including possible boundary surveys etc. I think that first registration of a title is free which helps although subsequent changes of title all incur some sort of fee. So the free one might be best kept in hand?

It’s an admirable thing to worry about but unless you are concerned that someone has pinched a bit of land then I cannot see much benefit in doing a voluntary registration. It will have to be done post death whatever happens so why not wait?

Ok that makes sense. Thanks for your advice.

[Mr Pointy]

Scarletpimpofnel said:

Thanks. Appreciate a solicitor needs to do it. What I was trying to get at is, is it easier to get it done pre or post death?

Surely get it done now so any potential issues (eg boundaries) can be sorted out by a living witness. I also doubt it's a quick process so it could hold up sorting out the estate by months.

[Schwarz930]

I recently bought a house in which the title was not on the land registry. It didn't pose any particular problems but I had to pay for an indemnity of some sort. Once the sale completed, it took about 15 months for the title to be registered at the land registry.

[Scarletpimpofnel]

Mr Pointy said:

Surely get it done now so any potential issues (eg boundaries) can be sorted out by a living witness. I also doubt it's a quick process so it could hold up sorting out the estate by months.

Thanks. That was my initial thought... but now not so sure reading other comments.

[Doofus]

Scarletpimpofnel said:

Mr Pointy said:

Surely get it done now so any potential issues (eg boundaries) can be sorted out by a living witness. I also doubt it's a quick process so it could hold up sorting out the estate by months.

Thanks. That was my initial thought... but now not so sure reading other comments.

When my mum died it turned out her property wasn't on the register. The solicitor told me there was a risk somebody else would lay claim to it, but they didn't and there were no significant delays in getting it sorted out.