Transfer of Property

[Hotpend]

How easy is it to transfer a leasehold property (registered at the Land Registry) from one person to another without employing a solicitor? I have just been reading a book review on Amazon. The reviewer is of the opinion that the process is quite simple!

[Kaz]

When you say 'transfer' do you mean sell or give?

[Hotpend]

I would like to know the situation in respect of either giving or selling.

[Richard Webster]

Are you disposing of it or acquiring it?

Is it a house or a flat?

Is there a mortgage secured on it at the moment and will the buyer need to secure a mortgage on it?

[Hotpend]

The property is a flat. My father is the leaseholder. There is no mortgage.

My father is aged 91. He is a widower and the sole occupant of the flat. For many years he has pressed me to agree to have the flat transferred into my name.

I believed (perhaps wrongly) that if he were to transfer the property to me he would have been deemed to have deprived himself of financial resources and would cease to be eligible for the Minimum Income Guarantee (Income Support) and Council Tax benefits he gets. His small pension alone would not be sufficient for him to live on.

After reading a post on this forum I have started to think more about the situation. I wondered if the property could be owned by my father and me as Tenants In Common. I could have the right of occupancy rent free, althought I would not want to live there.

If I needed to pay my father for a share of the flat I would not need a mortgage. I would of course be willing to pay for the services of a solicitor if that were necessary. I thought perhaps the transfer may be a simple matter involving only the competion of Land Registry forms.

[JustinN]

Not directly relevant, but I have just seen a chap who lent £150,000 to someone and self-completed the Land Registry forms to register the mortgage that was intended to secure repayment. The forms were completed wrongly in several respects and the lender could not satisfy Land Registry ID requirements, so the mortgage was not registered, the property has been sold and the borrower has vanished. Why didn't the lender use a solicitor? To save himself a couple of hundred quid - at the cost of losing £150,000. I'm just saying ...

[Hotpend]

Thanks JustinN. I would not risk losing a valuable asset to save a small amount on conveyancing. I remain curious however as to the complexity or otherwise of the process.

[JustinN]

For a freehold property, it is not usualy too difficult, assuming there are no mortgages or restrictions. For a leasehold property, you'd need to read the lease carefully to se what hoops you'd have to jump through

[Hotpend]

Thanks. I think it is best handled by a solicitor.