Legal Briefing In a weekly column, solicitor Juliet Phillips-James casts her expert eye over a range of legal matters and urges anyone with any questions or problems to come forward for help.

QI am buying a house but my solicitor has still not received the contract, title deeds or any papers from the seller’s solicitor, they seem so slow. It has been some weeks since the seller accepted my offer. All I’m being told are that the deeds are lost and an epitome of title cannot be prepared. I have no idea what this means and always thought deeds were held by the Land Registry.

AWhilst we do have a system of land registration, not all land is registered with Land Registry. This is especially common where ownership has not changed for many years or where land and property has been handed down through generations. It is now compulsory, where there is a change of ownership, that the deeds be sent to Land Registry for processing and registration by them. Land Registry will take the relevant information from the title deeds and prepare an electronic record, returning the old parchment titles deeds for historical importance. The electronic record held at Land Registry become the ‘deeds’. In your situation it seems the deeds are lost and the seller therefore has little or no evidence they own this property or have the authority to sell it. The seller’s solicitor will be unable to draft a contract without the title deeds and will be unable to prepare a list of all the historical deeds, called an epitome of title, for the buyer’s solicitor. It may take some time for the seller to search for these deeds and you should prepare yourself for a delay in the conveyancing process. If the seller locates some deeds or copies of the deeds then this may be a feasible option. However, Land Registry will only grant a possessory title instead of an absolute title and will make a note on the title deed that the deeds were lost. This may not be acceptable to a lender so your solicitor will need to check with your proposed lender that a possessory title is acceptable security for the mortgage. Ideally a seller should not market a property unless they are in possession of all the deeds to avoid the scenario you now find yourselves in. The conveyancing department at Gomer Williams are always available to discuss matters relating to title deeds so please do give us a call.