Before you sell your house, it helps if you understand all the property lingo and procedures you might come across, including the property title search. That’s why we’ve dedicated this article to explaining everything you need to know about your property’s title deeds and what they mean for your sale.
What is a Property Title Search?
A property title search is what you need to do if you want to obtain your property’s title deeds. Title deeds are important documents that hold lots of information about your house and you will need to obtain them if you wish to sell your property.
Your property’s title deeds are a collection of three documents:
- Title register – sets out who owns the property or land and details any restrictions on the property as well as its sale history
- Title plan – details the property or land’s location and boundaries
- Flood risk indicator – shows the likelihood of a flood occurring on the land
HM Land Registry is a non-ministerial government department that holds title deeds and records information about properties. When it comes to selling a house, HM Land Registry services are particularly useful. To find out more, head to our dedicated blog post: ‘What is the Land Registry and how can you use it to sell your house’.
When You Will Need a Property Title Search
You cannot legally sell a house unless you can prove you are the registered owner of the property, and a property title search will reveal this information. Issues arising from the property title search can often delay the sale process, and that’s why it’s important to understand them.
The buyer of your property and their solicitor handling the sale will need to obtain the title deeds before you exchange. The property title search will reveal important information about your property, including its past ownership, boundaries, flood risks and any limitations placed on the property that the buyer should be aware of.
How to Carry Out a Property Title Search
You and your solicitor will need to obtain the title deeds in order to sell your house, since they will need to be submitted to the buyer and their solicitor. But how do you carry out a property title search?
The process is actually very simple and is usually carried out by your solicitor, not you. However, there are some instances where you might want to obtain your property’s title deeds yourself, for example, if you ever need to prove you own your property. That’s why it’s handy to know how to go about carrying out a property title search.
Most title deeds are held by HM Land Registry, unless the property is very old and has no recent sale history. Besides HM Land Registry, a copy of the title deeds will usually be held by the solicitor who handled the purchase of the property. For older properties, it is rare that the original title deeds still exist, but this shouldn’t be cause for concern when digital copies are being held.
Title deeds can be ordered from HM Land Registry quite easily, and the process can be carried out online for a small fee. Obtaining a copy of the title deeds costs £3 for each of the documents listed above.
A Simple and Fast House Sale
Selling a house can be complicated, expensive, and above all, time-consuming. It’s not unusual for a sale to fall through at the last minute, despite all the hard work and preparation.
If you want to cut out the paperwork and expensive solicitor fees, why not sell your house fast to the expert team here at Zoom Property Buyer. We are a regulated and professional cash property buyer who can take your property off your hands in as little as 7 days. What’s even better is that we’ll handle all the administration ourselves and we won’t charge you a fee.
To sell your house fast to a buyer you can rely on, give our team at Zoom Property Buyer a call on 0333 880 4362 or complete our online enquiry form today.
