Deducing and Investigating Title Flashcards
The executors of the deceased sole owner of a property have agreed a sale of the property to a buyer. The property is freehold and has a registered title. The deceased owner is currently still shown as the registered proprietor.
What evidence of the executors’ authority to deal with the deceased’s estate will be required by the buyer’s solicitor?
A certified copy of the grant of probate to the deceased owner’s estate, to confirm that the sellers (as the executors) have obtained a grant of representation.
A copy of the death certificate is not sufficient on its own, even though the authority of executors derives from the will and arises from the date of death.
A man is buying a cottage built in 1900 and extended in 1990. The title to it was registered in 1940 and the charges register contains a restrictive covenant imposed in 1955 requiring the written consent of the owner of the adjoining land to any building work on the cottage. The seller has confirmed there is no written consent to the extension to the cottage.
Which of the following is a valid option available to the buyer in these circumstances?
Ask the seller to apply to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) for an order that the covenant be removed from the title.
A solicitor is acting for the buyer of a house which has a registered title and is being sold by a building society as a mortgagee in exercise of its power of sale. The mortgagee’s charge is the first registered charge. There is also a second registered charge in favour of a different mortgage lender.
Which of the following steps will need to be taken by the buyer’s solicitor?
Confirm that the mortgagee’s power of sale has arisen.
This is because the buyer’s solicitor will need to check not only that the mortgagee’s power of sale exists but also that it has arisen.
A solicitor is acting for the buyer of a leasehold flat which forms part of a block maintained by a management company. The sellers have an existing mortgage on the flat. The elderly mother of one of the sellers lives in the flat. The flat has a registered title and there are a number of restrictions in the proprietorship register which relate to registration of any disposition of the flat.
Which one of the following restrictions can be disregarded by the buyer’s solicitor prior to completion of the client’s purchase?
A restriction requiring the consent of the existing mortgagee.
A man is buying a freehold commercial unit which has a registered title. The sellers are two private individuals. The official copy of the register reveals a unilateral notice which is stated to protect an equitable charge of the property. The buyer has asked his solicitor to advise on the effect of the unilateral notice, if he went ahead with his purchase with the unilateral notice still in the register and with no undertaking being obtained from the sellers’ solicitor to arrange for its removal.
Which one of the following statements is correct as to the effect of the unilateral notice in such circumstances?
It will not prevent the transfer to the buyer being registered, but the property will remain subject to the equitable charge.
Although it is equitable in nature, the charge protected by the notice will bind the legal estate and so will not be capable of being overreached.
A first-time buyer is buying a freehold house from the survivor of two co-owners. The house has a registered title, with the seller and his late wife being shown as the proprietors. There is no restriction in the register. The seller’s son is the executor of the deceased co-owner’s estate. The draft contract shows the surviving co-owner as the seller.
Which one of the following steps should the buyer’s solicitor take to ensure the buyer can be registered as proprietor following completion?
Obtain a copy of the deceased co-owner’s death certificate so that this can be lodged with the application for registration.
This is because there is no ‘joint proprietorship’ restriction in the register to indicate that the property was held as beneficial tenants in common. As the surviving beneficial joint tenant, the seller is now the sole owner of the property and so all that is required is a copy of the death certificate as evidence to satisfy HM Land Registry that the other co-owner has died.
The survivor of co-owners is selling her freehold house, which has unregistered title. The house was purchased some years ago by the seller and her late husband and the conveyance to them recites that they held as beneficial joint tenants. The buyer’s solicitor has a copy of the husband’s death certificate and has checked that there is no memorandum of severance on the conveyance and no bankruptcy land charges registered against the co-owners. The seller’s daughter is the executor of the late husband’s estate.
Which one of the following steps would need to be taken to safeguard the buyer in these circumstances?
Insist the transfer to the buyer contains a declaration that the seller is now solely and beneficially entitled to the house.
A solicitor is preparing an epitome of title for the sale of a property which has an unregistered title. The seller is a limited company.
Which one of the following searches would it be best practice to include within the epitome?
Land charges search certificates against the names of the previous estate owners referred to within the epitome.
This is because although not obligatory, it is good practice to include these within an epitome, as correctly made search certificates will remain valid in relation to the period(s) for which they were made. They may also have a previous solicitor’s certification endorsed upon them to confirm that any entries revealed do not adversely affect the property. This saves the buyer’s solicitor the time and expense which would have been involved in having to obtain duplicate searches and, where necessary, requesting that the entries be certified as not affecting.
A trainee solicitor is acting for the seller of a residential freehold property with registered title and has asked their supervising partner where the responsibility of the seller to deduce title to the property to the buyer derives from.
Which one of the following explanations should the partner give?
The Standard Conditions of Sale (5th edn, 2018 revision).
Although the Handbook sets out details of lenders’ requirements regarding investigation of title on behalf of a buyer, it cannot impose any obligation upon the seller of a property regarding deduction of title.
The owner of a house, which has unregistered title, is selling the property to a buyer. The seller’s mother contributed part of the purchase price when the seller bought the property several years ago. The title deeds are in the seller’s sole name, but the mother was granted a right to reside in the property for her lifetime. The seller and their mother both currently reside in the house.
Which one of the following statements best describes the legal position regarding the mother’s interest in the house?
It constitutes an equitable interest which will be binding on the buyer only if they have notice of the interest.
The seller of a property is the survivor of two co-owners who held the property as an investment as beneficial tenants in common. The deceased co-owner’s son is the executor of his estate. The title to the property is registered and a co-ownership restriction appears in the proprietorship register.
Which one of the following best describes the effect of such a restriction?
It ensures that overreaching takes place before a transfer on sale can be registered.
The surviving co-owner has a power to sell the property and the consent of the beneficiary is not required.
A solicitor is acting for a company in its purchase of a commercial property that has a registered title. The solicitor has obtained official copies of the register and the documents referred to in it and has discussed these with the managing director of the company. The managing director has asked the solicitor about the status of these official copies.
Which one of the following best describes the extent to which official copies are admissible in evidence?
They are admissible to the same extent as the originals.
Although the official copies provided with the contract pack by the seller’s solicitor to the buyer’s solicitor at the start of the transaction should (under the Law Society Conveyancing Protocol) be less than six months old, this does not in itself affect the issue of their admissibility as evidence.
A house originally formed part of a larger property but was sold off to the current owner some years ago. The seller, at the time of the ‘sale off’ conveyance of the house, retained the remainder of their property. The current owner is now selling the house. The buyer’s solicitor is investigating the unregistered title to the house, as shown in the epitome of title.
Which one of the following statements best describes what the buyer’s solicitor would expect to find?
That there is an acknowledgement for production by the then seller within the ‘sale off’ conveyance, in respect of the originals of any prior title deeds.
Although such a memorandum should be endorsed at the time of the ‘sale off’ conveyance, it would need to be endorsed on the conveyance to the then seller, not on the ‘sale off’ conveyance itself.
A solicitor acting for the seller of a property advises their client that there is a unilateral notice (UN) in the registered title. The UN is expressed to protect a previous contract for sale which the seller claims was rescinded some time ago. The seller has had no contact with the beneficiary of the UN since then. The solicitor advises their client, as seller, to apply for cancellation of the UN by lodging Form UN4 at HM Land Registry.
Which one of the following statements best describes the effect of an application on Form UN4?
It will automatically be successful if the beneficiary does not object to the application.
A company is selling an unregistered leasehold property which it has owned for many years. The lease was granted in 1980 and was assigned to the company in 1985. The person who sold the lease to the company had themselves taken an assignment of the lease in 1982. The company created a mortgage on the property in favour of its bank in 1986. The title to the freehold reversion is unregistered. The solicitor acting for the company is preparing an epitome of title.
Which one of the following documents would constitute the most appropriate root of title?
The 1985 assignment of the lease.
