Wife died in 2017 leaving her beneficial half share of a property, held as tenants in common (form A restriction) with Husband, to her 3 children. 2 of which, along with the surviving spouse, were named as executors in both wills.
Proprietary register at HM Land Registry was never updated upon the first death. Husband continued to reside in the property until passing recently. Property is now to be sold, and proceeds shared equally amongst the 3 children.
If anyone could please advise on best practice to proceed at HMLR in order to facilitate the sale.
Am I correct in understanding simply submission of form AS1 will suffice?
Does this administration of the legal title need to be done before sale? or can it be done at the point of sale with the purchasers legal reps?
On W’s death H will have been the sole legal owner, so my understanding is that H’s executors will need to execute a TR1 and provide W’s death certificate as well as H’s GOP. If there are two surviving executors, they should be able to overreach the beneficial interest of W’s estate.
A TR1 by H’s executors and W’s death certificate as well as H’s GOP should suffice in order to sell the property.
This would transfer the legal title to the purchasers and be done at the point of sale? With monies paid to 2 of H’s executors in order to overreach.
And so there would be no need to administer the legal title before the point of sale? (I ask as the beneficiaries are undecided as to whether to sell or not at this stage)
Apprehensive of the legal reps of purchasers requesting the GOP for W’s estate.
I don’t see why they’d need to change the title before the sale, especially with how long the Land Registry are taking even for simple Form A applications. I suppose they could do a DJP to remove W’s name, but that would still leave the restriction on the title and I’m not sure an RX3 would get around that because W didn’t leave her interest in the property to H.
I am rather surprised W left her half to children rather than to H and so miss out on the spouse exemption. Wonder whether the will writer asked them about life interests.
I can’t imagine the buyer’s solicitors would need GOP for W’s estate as the legal title is always held as joint tenants, but the Land Registry’s helpline should be able to give guidance, as does their Practice Guide on the topic.
Usual good practice would be for the first death to be updated on the Title, leaving the form A restriction in place. The Executors of last surviving spouse can then act in the sale but will need to appoint an additional Trustee (independent of them so as not to be “wearing the same hat”) to over-reach the provisions of the beneficial interest of first deceased joint proprietor. No need for the Buyers’ Solicitors to see either the death certificate/GofP for first deceased as long as Register at HMLR is updated before draft Contract submitted. Contract would provide for an additional Trustee to be appointed and the TR1 would then include such provision in it and the additional Trustee would also execute the TR1 along with the executors