land registry

[issuedafatwa]

My wifes father passed away recently and all assets including the house were left to my wife and her brother. The solicitor dealing with the will wanted the house to be sold and the money divided between my wife and brother, however my wife didn't want to force her brother to move out so the solicitor was instructed to leave the deeds in the late fathers name. It has been a year and it has now been agreed between my wife and brother that she will sell her half of the house to him for a set amount. The brother contacted his building society to arrange a mortgage and was granted the full amount and a cheque would be released within 48 hours of them receiving the deeds in his name. August my wife contacted the solicitor and asked if she could arrange the necessary paperwork i.e The deeds in the fathers name were to be changed into the brothers. My wife would sign some sort of disclaimer relinquishing her rights to the house. The deeds would be sent to the building society so they may release the cheque. It has been 3 months since the above matter was placed in the hands of the solicitor in which time she has never updated my wife. When she has phoned and spoken to the solicitor she has used the following excuses; There was no guarantee that my wife would receive the cheque once the deeds had been changed, however my wife had explained that she trusts her brother 100% and that this should not concern her as it was not part of the original instructions. The next excuse was that the mortgage company's solicitor had not replied, however as explained the mortgage company only want to see the deeds and should not be involved in the changing of the them. The last straw came when my wife phoned to ask why it was taking so long and was told by the solicitor that she had no received the forms back from the building society. My questions are; Is there an easy way of doing what needs to be done without too much legal jargon, or is the changing of title deeds really that

[MustafaTickl]

You and your wife are not looking at this correctly. (1) Deeds have been done away with for years and it is only your Registration at the Land Registry which counts now (2) You can check whether the property is Registered by clicking http://www.landregisteronline.gov.uk/ and following the instructions (3) if it is Unregistered it will now have to be Registered (4) the executor should have transferred ownership into the names of your wife and brother as 50/50 tenants in common (5) ownership by the brother is then achieved by further transferring the property into his sole name. Items (2)(3) and (4) you can do yourself by phoning your local District Land Registry Office and seeking their instructions - you will also have to phone [phone] and obtain a Stamp Duty Land Tax certificate for the Land Registry. Item (5) will have to be done by and through the brother's mortgage lender, as the lender will at the same time Register a Restriction on the property to secure the loan.

[Nether Edge]

Some deeds are still relevant despite registration: eg lease (if property is leasehold house or flat).