Common title deed defects
A title deed is a legal document that shows who legally owns or holds the title to a piece of property. If you are interested in purchasing a property, it is absolutely vital that you or your conveyancing solicitor check the title deed and make sure that the seller is actually entitled to sell you that property. Title deeds are quite useful in giving you a lot of pertinent information such as
• right of way through the property• boundaries of the property
• whether there are any mortgages on the land
• whether any other party has interest in the property
• repairs and maintenance
• restrictions if any, e.g. restrictions in altering the property or running a business
• rights to any roads that cross the property
• details on joint ownership
• survivorship details, i.e. what happens if a co-owner were to die
etc.
Often, the legal language used in title deeds may be confusing to laymen. A conveyancing solicitor can be of great help in helping you decipher what is written in the title deed.
If the property is under mortgage, it is the mortgage lender who keeps the title deeds; otherwise it will be with the owner of the property. The owner may choose to keep it at home, or instruct a conveyancing solicitor to hold it for him.
Title deeds are important because they prove ownership. Whenever a property is considered for purchase, it is standard procedure to check the title deeds. No sale should proceed without this important documentation.
Sometimes, title deeds may be defective: something which is required may be missing from it, or something which is not required may be included. We will discuss some common title deed defects, which you may want to watch out for:
1. Absence of easementAn easement is a legal right in relation to the land. An absence of easement occurs mainly when the property must be accessed via a private road or if a private sewer serves it. This defect in the title deed brings about two problems – disputes about right of way and disagreements about maintenance and repair.
2. Lack of covenants for repair and maintenanceWhen the road or a sewer is private, the public authority is not responsible for maintaining it and therefore if falls upon the property owners to pay a fair proportion of cost for repairs and maintenance. What you need to understand here is that even if there is a covenant or agreement, it is legally enforceable only between the original parties who entered into the agreement. When the property changes hand many times over, it becomes difficult to claim the original owner and to enforce the covenant.
3. Lack of Rights of WayWhen the deed does not contain a right of way over the road that accesses the property, it means that the owner of the property does not have a legal right of access. This is of course a very unfortunate situation, and more often than not a search to establish who owns the road results in disappointing results. It may not be that easy to trace the owners.
Read more about the right way to deal with lack of covenants and lack of rights of way
As you can see, title deeds are extremely important in providing the right information about property. Make sure that you enlist the help of a conveyancing solicitor to confirm that the title deeds are in order before you go ahead with a purchase.
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