The very nature of property auctions mean that we often feature properties that are probate sales i.e. being sold on behalf of the estate of someone who has recently died. In many cases, these properties have been lived in by the same person for many, many years – in some cases the whole life of the predecessor – and you get the feeling that there have been few changes to the property during this time!

Such was a bungalow in Teignmouth that I visited recently and that was purchased by a local couple who planned to make it their family home. The property was in a terrible state – even by the Estate Agents’ description, it was in need of ‘considerable modernisation’ and was suffering from years of neglect. And until someone invents ‘smellivision’ we will never be able to convey properly to viewers how bad some properties smell – and this was a real corker! On the plus side though, as a detached bungalow it had a good sized plot with large gardens, garage, ample car parking and lovely views. So with the budget and energy that our young couple were prepared to commit, this property offered them the makings of a lovely home.

But it wasn’t just the poor state of repair of the bungalow that made it an interesting story. Unfortunately there were no Title Deeds to the property and so our buyers were faced with having to either buy a home which had no title deeds or walking away from their dream purchase.

Now, sometimes we come across properties where the Title Deeds simply cannot be traced - but in this instance there were never any to begin with! Bear in mind that until relatively recently (i.e. somewhere in the last century), it wasn’t a legal requirement to register property with the Land Registry as it is today, some properties just simply do not have Title Deeds stating the current owner. This is something to be aware of if you are buying an older property that has been in the same hands for many years.

So does the fact that a property has no Title Deeds spell disaster?

Years ago of course, the Title Deeds were physically held by property owners to prove that they do actually legally own the house. If the property was mortgaged, it was common practise that the Mortgagor (the bank or building society lending the money) would hold the Title Deeds in their offices until the loan was repaid - which conjures up visions of vast storage vaults crammed full of old, hand written scriptures representing the Title Deeds of all the properties that the organisation had legal charge over.

However, in the digital age, the importance of being able to locate or produce physical title deeds has diminished considerably as all registered titles are now held electronically by the Land Registry, i.e. the title deeds are now stored on the Land Registry's computers. 
 
This means that provided there were Title Deeds at some point, you can obtain copies of them whenever you want quite quickly and simply by contacting the Land Registry and paying a fee to have a copy produced.

What Constitutes Title Deeds?
 
There are 3 main documents comprising the title deeds, namely the Property Register, the Title Plan and one or more Registered Documents (Burdens, in Scotland).

The Property Register states the name and address of the owner, lists any mortgages or charges on the property, the purchase price, details of covenants and easements and any other relevant details. There may be between 1 and 100 or more pages to a Property Register.

The Title Plan is a large scale plan based on the Ordnance Survey and shows the property in relation to other properties so you can see exactly where the property is located and it’s boundaries.

Registered Documents may be conveyances, transfers, agreements, deeds, licences etc. There may be no Registered Documents or there may be many. Usually they contain immense detail and come with attached plans that the Land Registry consider necessary to better describe the property. 
 
If you wish to replace lost deeds you can apply for a copy of each of the above from the Land Registry (www.landregistry.gov.uk) by sending them the appropriate form and fee. If there are no Registered Documents that part of your fee will be refunded in full.  Be aware that if you require your Title Deeds in connection with a sale you should check the tick box on the form requesting Official Copies (Office Copies). 

 
What are the risks of buying a property with No Title Deeds?

Clearly, in the case of our Teignmouth property, the risk to the buyers of purchasing the bungalow with no Title Deeds whatsoever, is that there is always a chance (albeit small) that someone in the future could turn up and say that the property is on their land. Without having registered Title, this would leave our buyers with an upsetting and potentially costly situation to sort out. They therefore had taken out a special type of Insurance to cover them in the unlikely event of this happening.

Even if there are Title Deeds you can also protect yourself against anything untoward occurring with regard to Title, boundaries, access rights, previous planning consents etc in the future. This would be a special type of indemnity insurance to cover for losses arising out of a defect in the Title of a property. This means that if something termed an ‘Adverse Right’ is enforced and the consequences of this are that the property has to be modified, have structures removed or in the worse case, pulled down, then the insurance policy will pay out to cover losses and expenses incurred (including compensation for loss in market value).

So in summary, obviously make sure that you are aware of the status of the Title Deeds of any property you are contemplating buying but don’t panic. If there are no Title Deeds available or there is any danger that there may be problems with the Title Deeds you can do something to protect yourself from any future issues. These insurances don’t cost the earth and in the overall costs of buying property, represent a small percentage for huge peace of mind. As ever, forewarned is forearmed!

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