Three was company
Q. My brother never left home, and when he married, his wife moved in with my mother too. My mother has now died without leaving a will, and my brother is saying she gave him the house, and that his name and that of his wife are on the title deeds. He improved the house a bit and my mother became a tenant in her own home. Should he pay my sister and I some money for the house?
A. Not if your mother gave it to him before she died. It has belonged to your brother and his wife since the date she transferred it into their names, and its ownership isn’t affected by her death. She was entitled to give away anything she owned as she chose, even if you don’t think this was fair. You are probably entitled to a third share of anything else she owned, since she died without leaving a will, but you can check whether what your brother says is true by looking at the proprietorship register at the Land Registry.

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Car park attendant
Q. I have bought a semi-detached house, at the back of which there is a parking space for the neighbouring property. I am the freeholder. Can I charge my neighbour for parking his car on my land?
A. Possibly, but if you have just bought the property it’s likely that whoever carried out the conveyancing work for you would have mentioned it. The arrangement as regards the parking space may be referred to on the charges register containing details of your property held at the Land Registry. If you engaged a solicitor to buy the house, he or she will have studied these documents and should be able to answer any questions you may have. It could be that the people next door have simply acquired the right to park on your land through putting their car there over many years. On the other hand they may have no right whatsoever to do so! But you should get it sorted out.

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Certified owner
Q. Some time ago I read that a Land Certificate was more valuable than the deeds to a property. How can this be? Where would you obtain a Land Certificate, and is there a charge for this?
A. You used to receive a Land Certificate once your property was registered at the Land Registry (although if you had a mortgage it would have been retained and the lender would have been given a charge certificate). However the Land Registry no longer issues Land Certificates. On registration, all the details contained in your title deeds are placed on central files, so the deeds in effect become redundant although they may be useful to refer to from time to time. If your property isn’t registered now it will be next time it changes hands; there’s no need to do anything at this stage – apart from look after your title deeds. It is possible, and in some cases advisable, to register your property voluntarily.

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Now known as
Q. I have recently married and want to know how I go about changing my surname on the title deeds of three properties I own. Two are leasehold and the other is freehold. All were bought within the last five years. How much will it cost, and how long will it take?
A. It costs nothing to change a property description, or the name, address or description of any person on the register at the Land Registry. Assuming you live in the Greater Manchester area, write to Land Registry Lytham Office, Birkenhead House, East Beach, Lytham St Annes FY8 5AB enclosing evidence of the change, such as an official copy of your marriage certificate. It will assist greatly if you can provide the title number of each of the properties. If you don’t have these to hand you can obtain them from Land Registry Online for a small fee. It’s not strictly necessary to alter your name on the register, but if you choose to do so it should take a matter of weeks.

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Tight squeeze
Q. We live in a dead end road over which we have a right of way. There are only six houses, but one of the owners claims to have a right to park his car in the road, which gives us just 18 inches to squeeze past on foot. As far as I’m aware none of the other properties have parking rights; how did our neighbour get his?
A. If it’s a private road and all the houses were built at the same time it’s likely that the deeds to all the properties will be more or less identical. If you have only pedestrian access over the road it’s unlikely that your neighbour will have anything more, although it’s just possible that he will have acquired the right to park his car outside his house by doing so over many years. Take your title deeds to a solicitor; you may be able to force your neighbour to move the vehicle.

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