Who is the legal owner of a property?

preacher505

I bought a former council house under the shared ownership scheme back in 96.
By 98 I had to have a council engineer out to look at the large cracks running throughout the house and again in 2002.
Due to ill health I lost my job and fell behind in payments.
I was so ill that the council gave me the run around telling me I was the owner of the house and that structural repairs were my problem.
They did this for 19 years knowing that I was so ill I just wouldn't keep pestering them.

I've since discovered these houses were built by them in the 60's with absolutely no foundations, just bare glacial clay on a 30 degree slope, the dividing wall with the adjacent house has a chimney brest that is bolstered at the base by a pile of boulders packed with damp loose earth and the list goes on.

I'd finally had enough and despite the housing officers insistance that the deeds were in my name with my solicitor I checked for the name on the deeds at the land registry, the council came back as the "FULL OWNER".

After obtaining all documents held by my local council under the freedom of information act I found that the deeds were last mentioned as being in the safe of my local councils solicitor so on both points they outright lied to me.

I had read on previous posts regarding legal ownership of shared ownership properties but allthough it seemed to be a general consensus that a purchaser regardless was the legal owner there always seemed to be a question as to where these deeds were, as far as i'm aware if you are registered on the deeds under the ownership under the title "absolute" then you are the outright owner of that property.

Ie if the councils name appears on the land registry under part 2 - ownership, title "ABSOLUTE" and "FULL OWNER" they remain the full owner untill at least the first part of the loan is repaid or an alternative agreement is reached.

I didn't get an independant engineers report at the time of purchase as legally the county council were the only purchasers, my name appears nowhere on the sale agreement, secondly as the county council originally built the houses I saw no reason to question the competence or integrity of the engineer.

My question is who legally owns the property if the councils name appears as the full owner?

The_Conductor

You need to go to your solicitor and ask them.
Aside from anything else- we cannot offer legal advice on this forum- and what you are asking- is legal advice.

Best of good luck.

Thread closed.