Missing Title Deeds

At Ward Hadaway we often receive calls from concerned members of the public who are looking to sell or re-mortgage their house, or have perhaps inherited a house from a deceased relative, and do not know where the title deeds for the house are.  What can be done in such a situation?

The first thing to check is whether the house is registered at the Land Registry.  If the house is registered then the Land Registry will hold details of the property and its registered owner.

The Land Registry will also hold copies of some documents and for a small fee they can often be downloaded from the Land Registry’s website.  An official copy of the title register can then be produced as evidence of ownership.

If the house is not registered at the Land Registry then there will be more of a problem.

When registering property at the Land Registry for the first time, which is necessary for most land transactions involving unregistered property, the owner must generally lodge documents showing the chain of ownership going back at least 15 years.

However, if you have been unable to find the title deeds, then you can still apply for first registration.

You will need to provide the Land Registry with an account of the events that have resulted in the loss or destruction of the title deeds, usually in the form of a Statement of Truth by the person claiming ownership of the property.

The account will need to establish who had possession of the deeds and where they were held, why they were held by that person, when, where and how the loss or destruction occurred and what steps have been taken to find the deeds.

It will also be necessary to try to reconstruct the title deeds to show how the property has passed to the person applying to be registered as its owner.

This might include a certified copy or draft of a conveyance or transfer to the person applying, together with copies of documents forming the earlier title.

If all copies have been lost then it might be possible to obtain replacements from the solicitor who acted for the seller of the property and, where this is not possible, a receipted schedule of deeds or copies of inheritance tax declarations, receipts for taxes or copies of insurance policies could also be considered.

The account of events should normally establish that the person applying for ownership is either in actual occupation of the property or is in receipt of rents or profits from it, or that the applicant is entitled to apply for registration of the property.

The Land Registry will also require evidence of the identity of the applicants for first registration.  The evidence will help to demonstrate that the applicant is entitled to apply for registration and protects against the risk of fraud.

In circumstances where the title deeds have been lost or destroyed, it is likely that the Land Registry will only grant either a “possessory title” or a “qualified title” rather than a “title absolute”, where the Land Registry guarantee the ownership.

A further application can then be made to the Land Registry to upgrade the title after the expiry of certain time limits.

However, if you are looking to sell or re-mortgage the property and are only able to offer a possessory or qualified title then the buyer or mortgage lender will usually require indemnity insurance to be put in place to cover the risk of a valid claim for ownership being made by a third party before the title is upgraded.

* Find out more about our services for home buyers, sellers and remortgaging.