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CHANGING WHO IS RECORDED AS LEGAL OWNER ON THE TITLE DEEDS OF A PROPERTY
There can be a variety of reasons why you might want to change the name of who is registered as legal owner of a property.
Most commonly, changes of name, particularly the removal of a name, happens on either divorce or death: When a couple divorces or separates, one of them may want to stay in the property and buy the share of the other.
When someone dies, removing his or her name from the property deed may be necessary in order to complete probate and distribute his or her estate. The name of the deceased person might be replaced with those of the beneficiaries, or in the case of sale of the property, with a new owner.
The process of removing a name from the title deeds
An application must be made to change the register. Form AP1 should be completed
If the entire property is to be transferred to new owners, Form TR1 should also be completed and filed with the land Registry.
Where the property is owned by two owners as joint tenants and one dies, the surviving joint owner becomes the sole legal owner of the property. In order to remove the name of the deceased, Form DJP must be completed and filed.
If there are no surviving owners, the transfer will happen as part of the probate process. The beneficiaries may have the property transferred into their names, or into the names of representatives using form AP1 and AS1.
If the owners bought the property using a mortgage, the permission of the mortgage lender will usually be necessary to be obtained in order to remove the name of one of the owners. The mortgage provider will usually assess the financial ability of the remaining owner to make repayments.
