Title Register

[Furnon]

Hi

I obtained a title register for a property I am thinking of purchasing from the land registry.

Is it right that this document would only list the current owner of the property?

Is there a way of finding who the previous owners were?

Thanks for your help

Furn

[Richard Webster]

Re: Title Register

Why do you need to know?

[Furnon]

Re: Title Register

Hi Richard

Thanks for having a look at my query. On the title document it mentions a prior owner, but not the previous owner. It did not seem right to me, but I have never bought a house before to know.

Furn

[Richard Webster]

Re: Title Register

There will often be references to covenants or rights of various contained in earlier documents. The Land Registry entries will say things like "A Conveyance dated 15 October 1953 made between Joe Bloggs Builders Limited and Fred Smith contains [the following rights] or [restrictive covenants set out in the Schedule of Restrictive Covenants]. The information is merely given to identify the particular document that contained those items.

In this case Fred Smith would have been the person who bought the house new from the builder, but unless you are researching the history of your house the name of the first buyer is pretty academic and hasn't really got anything to do with anything now.

[Furnon]

Re: Title Register

Ah, thanks Richard, one of the entries was:

(xx.xx.2007) A Conveyance of the land tinted blue on the title
plan dated x September 197x made between (1) John Smith and Jane Smith (Vendors) and (2) Ian Jones and Mary Jones (Purchasers) contains vendor's personal covenant(s) details of which are set out in the schedule of personal covenants hereto

Furn

[Richard Webster]

Re: Title Register

So you can look to see what the personal covenants were. Personal covenants don't bind the land and tend to be about things which require some positive action such as maintaining a fence or paying a sum of money. They are only enforceable against the person who originally gave the covenant, so it may worth trying to find out if John and Jane Smith still live nearby.

[Glaukas]

Re: Title Register

thanks for an advice