It is a dozen years since I acquired my home in Canonbury. Conveyancing lawyers have now been retained on the sale but I can't find the deeds. Is this a problem?
You need not be too concerned. Firstly the deeds may be with the mortgage company or they could stored with the lawyers who acted in the purchase. Secondly the likelihood is that the land will be recorded at the land registry and you will be able to prove you are the registered owner by your conveyancing solicitors procuring up to date copy of the land registers. Almost all conveyancing in Canonbury relates to registered property but in the rare situation where your home is not registered it is more problematic but is not insurmountable.
Despite weeks of looking the Title Certificate and documents to our home can not be found. The conveyancers who conducted the conveyancing in Canonbury years ago are no longer around.What are my next steps?
As long as you have a registered title the details of your ownership will be retained by the Land Registry with a Title Number. It is easy to carry out a search at the Land Registry, find your house and obtain up to date copies of the Registered Entries for less than a fiver. Where the title is Leasehold then the Land Registry will in most cases hold a file copy of the Registered Lease and again, a copy can be retrieved for a small fee.
Due to the input of my in-laws I had a survey completed on a property in Canonbury ahead of retaining lawyers. I have been told that there is a flying freehold element to the property. My surveyor has said that some banks may refuse to issue a loan on such a house.
It depends who your proposed lender is. Santander has different instructions for example to Birmingham Midshires. Should you wish to telephone us we can look into this further via the appropriate bank. If you lender is happy to lend one our lawyers can help as they are used to dealing with flying freeholds in Canonbury. Conveyancing will be smoother if you use a solicitor in Canonbury especially if they regularly deal with such properties in Canonbury.