Transfer of Land Following Death

THE TRANSFER OF LAND FOLLOWING DEATH

The Transfer of land following death is regulated by the Land Registration Act 2002

When a person dies and they own land that will be inherited by someone else, it is usually necessary to register the change of ownership at the Land Registry. A solicitor will do this for you and if you would like a quote for this please either:

If a solicitor has been employed to deal with Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration it is not necessary to use the same solicitor to transfer the property. It is often much more cost effective and efficient to use a specialist Conveyancer to deal with this aspect of the transfer of property.

The Deceased will usually have Title Deeds for any land that they owned. If there is no mortgage on the property, they may keep the Title Deeds at home or they may be held for safe keeping with a bank or a solicitor.

If you are not sure whether the deceased owned property or land you may check this with the Land Registry. You should be aware that a fee is payable for this service. You will find their contact details in our useful links section below. As Personal Representative of the deceased, you can find out this information by making a search in the Index of Proprietors’ Names.

If you feel that you need to carry out this search, particularly if you think that the deceased may have owned a number of properties, you may contact the Land Registry and they will explain the procedure you need to follow. Please be aware that there is a fee to search the Index of Proprietors’ Names.

If the land or property is already registered with the Land Registry then the deeds will consist of a Charge Certificate if the property is mortgaged or if there is no mortgage the deeds will consist of a Land Certificate.

If the deceased has owned the property for a long time, and there have been no changes, then the land may not be registered with the Land Registry in which case the title deeds will consist of a collection of deeds and documents usually Conveyances, Legal Charges, Assents etc. and will include the deed which conveyed the property to the deceased.