First visit was to the Etches Collection, a wonderful museum dedicated to a collection of fossils gathered by Steve Etches who like me, must have frittered away many an hour hunting for ammonites on Kimmeridge beach. As a kid I always loved looking for fossils and this passion has not diminished as I’ve grown older.
Second visit was a spontaneous drive out to Kimmeridge for an evening picnic. Sadly that idea got canned when we turned up to find that there is now a huge metal gate preventing access to the beach after 7 pm. No more twilight strolls looking for fossils or photographing sunsets.
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| Here's one I took somewhere else |
All this unnatural gallivanting around in times of Covid is but a means of alleviating the boredom of furlough and waiting on property matters which have almost ground to a halt.
Two words to say to all house buyers out there – probate/unregistered.
Estate Agents for all their preparation of marvellous marketing material designed to make a sow’s ear look like a silk purse, cleverly fail to mention many things that may affect your purchase like whether the house is a probate property or has an unregistered title. I guess they feel that the sin of omission is not quite the same as telling a blatant lie so it’s often the case that you don’t stumble across info that might have made a difference to your decision or the cash offered to buy a house until a lot later when you are well down the expensive conveyancing road. Buyer Beware!
Make it top of your list of questions for the estate agent and your conveyancing solicitor to find out if a property being marketed is a probate sale and whether or not the house has an unregistered title. These two things could make a difference especially to your wallet as legal fees stack up when having to deal with both these matters.
Turns out our biddy bungalow is both of these – a property being sold under a grant of probate and with a title that isn’t registered at Land Registry. Problem? Not really. You can still go ahead and buy such a house but be prepared for a) lengthy delays in the process and b) a big legal fee at the end.
Lucky for us, our seller had already got a grant of probate to sell the property which appears to have been owned by his deceased father. If you’re unlucky enough to have had an offer accepted on a probate house without a grant in place then it could take weeks even months before the seller is able to move on their side of the transaction.
Unregistered titles it appears are also not uncommon since this only became a legal requirement a few years ago. Older properties that may not have been sold for decades may not have been registered at Land Registry so again delays can be encountered as rightful legal ownership has to be proved by the seller before it can be transferred to you. Kerching! Another few hundred quid added to the solicitor’s bill.
So, in hindsight, the 3 key questions we should have asked BEFORE making an offer on this bungalow:
1) Is it a probate sale and if so, do you know if the seller has a grant of probate in place?
2) If it’s an older property that hasn’t been sold in decades then ask if the seller has registered the title at Land Registry
3) Ask your solicitor before you begin conveyancing, how much extra they will charge to deal with probate sales or unregistered titles so it doesn’t come as a shock when they bill you.
If you are not in a hurry to move house or have piles of dosh languishing in the bank then these issues won’t make a difference – it’s just going to take longer and cost more.
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