A Testing Inheritance Question!

[jayjayjay]

So the story goes...

30 years ago my father (still alive) purchased the house we still live in today. It was actually purchased by his friend (rich dude who is foreign and lived abroad) under the condition we pay him monthly rent/payments until the value is covered (like a friendly mortgage). The deeds are in his name but were left with us.

Payments finished around 5 years ago and unfortunately he died in a car accident a couple of years later (yes we should have sorted things earlier!)

Anyway we still live here, we still have the deeds, his daughter who is NOK lives in this country and was fully aware of the agreement and has no issues.

How do we transfer the deeds into our name? His daughter is happy to help if needed. He has a significant estate abroad but nothing else in this country. The house is only valued at £150 000.

Any experts out there?

[Buenchico]

Who holds the deeds is largely irrelevant. I've got the deeds to my house in a filing cabinet right next to me but I could happily take them out and set fire to them. It's what's recorded at the Land Registry that's important these days!

You've not stated which country the gentleman died in, nor whether he left a will, but it will be the laws of that country that will apply (or will have already have been applied) in relation to the distribution of his estate. If he left everything to his daughter (or the daughter was the only beneficiary of his estate under the intestacy laws of the relevant country) everything should be fairly straightforward. The daughter will need obtain proof that the house is now her property and get the land registry records changed in her favour. She can then gift it to you via a second transfer.

If the deceased gentleman left a will which could be interpreted as giving the house (or part of it) to someone else, or if there are others who would benefit under the intestacy laws of his country of residence, then it might be necessary to engage the services of a lawyer in that country to try to sort things out.

[buildersmate]

Burning deeds is not recommended. You are assuming that because registration at LR is compulsory, every property is registered by now. Simply not true, there are thousands of land parcels that have never been sold since compulsory registration occurred for which the deeds are somewhat crucial. OP confirms parcel has not been sold for 30 years - perfectly possible that it is not registered.
Otherwise I would agree with your answer.

[jayjayjay]

Thanks Buenchico for you're reply.

The gentleman in question was Indian and the house was registered under his name.

The accident was sudden and as far as I know there was no will. Not sure about Indian laws but he had a lots of wealth in India and the family have had no problems accessing this since his death.

I thought it may be as you suggested but speaking to a solicitor who lives locally I was advised you cannot simply gift such large amounts of money/house and it would be seen as suspicious activity.

Thanks again for the advice.

[themas]

Was the agreement with the owner conirmed in writing? Do you have that document? Can you produce evidence of the payments you made to him & the reason for making them? Any of these would help you prove your case.

I suspect you are going to need legal advice (more than just a chat to a local solicitor) to get this sorted out.

Depending on the legal arrangments regarding wills and intestacy in India it may be that this house will not be dealt with under Indian law but as an intestacy under UK law. If so - & experienced legal advice is essential here - it may pass to his daughter under intestacy rules (depending what other family he had).

If it can be transferred to her then I see no reason why she cannot gift it to you. The only problem I can see is that if she dies within 7 years and has other assets which give rise to an IHT liability you may end up having to pay some IHT (if it can't be paid from the rest of her estate).