Problem with title to house: Have I lost everything

I have a very sad story and would appreciate any titbits of help We sold our house 2 years ago and rented for 1 year while looking for something (during this time I became very ill and wasent able to look at houses.).

A very good friend wanted to sell and move to England. We decided to buy his house, he found a lovely place in England so we gave him a huge amount 147000.00 which was his equity we then got a mortgage for 120000.00 which was sent to our solicitor.

When the deeds arrived our solicitor told us there was a problem There was 2 charges against the house one was cleared up and the other was hazy this was before my friend bought the house 10 years ago. my solicitor said this was likely to be ok as the solicitor at the time had to give an undertaking or something or he couldent have bought the house.

On Friday I got a letter from him and from my mortgage co who said the cheque was returned to them. I phoned the solicitor he said he had to do this as he would be in trouble as it was going on too long he would be send me a statement and returning the money I paid in land registery fees.

Is that it have I lost everything? We are getting a bit old to be applying for another mortgage. Is there any hope for me getting anything back?

Hi brain and welcome to AAM. I've reformatted your post to make it a bit more readable, and moved it to a more appropriate forum for legal issues on residential houses.

Please familiarise yourself with our Posting Guidelines - the original title of your post was not very specific to your problem and reduced the chance of you getting useful help.

There seem to be two questions here:
- how to establish marketable title on "your" current property
- how to raise money to fund your living costs, perhaps by "releasing equity" from your current property

I assume you are currently living in the property your friend "sold" to you.
What paperwork was exchanged when you gave your friend €147,000? Were solicitors involved?
Was €147,000 agreed as the purchase pice for your property?
What does your solicitor advise as the next step to establish clean title on "your" property?

I am not a lawyer, but the situation is probably salvageable with a good solicitor. The main cost will be time!

Didn't the poster sell his own property two years ago and then used some of the equity to buy his friend's house. There seems to be a problem with the house he purchased from his friend and he thinks he has lost the 120,000 mortgage loan.

thank you MugsGame for posting it correctly I am living in the house and paid mortgage for the last 6 months which I assume is now dead money as the co says it was interest The purchase price was 267000.00 and the mortgage I got was to pay off his mortgage company I assume will now be looking for their money I paid my solicitor and gave him a cheque for the % 10000 which was the tax money for 2nd time buyers he said he is refunding me that and sending all my paperwork back to me. My "Friend" cannot be contacted I have a phone no but he refuses to answer. PS I am She no He Thanks

Hi Brainless

Thats sounds like a bit of a mess. It isnt very clear what your Solicitor done. Did he do the search on your property, find outstanding Debts and then just send back you morgage? Why did he not follow the search through?

A confusing story. You bought a property and funded it using the proceeds of your sold property and a mortgage for the remainder?

You have been living in the property for six months? To drawdown this mortgage, your solicitor was obliged to provide your lender with an undertaking of good marketable title which is done by investigating the title deeds. You have made six months repayments on this mortgage? (It shouldn't matter whether the repayments covered capital or interest).

The vendor had a mortgage on this property also? In order to get the mortgage, his solicitor had to give an undertaking to his lender which involved investigating the title deeds also, which should have dealt with any prior charges.

Six months later the solicitor has discovered problems and decided to return the mortgage cheque to the lender?
.
There is a lack of information. Were solicitors involved at the beginning for the transfer of €147K? Is there a contract? You don't need to speak to your friend/vendor. You need to speak to your solicitor.

Thank you for your reply PM1234 you have put my garble very nicely. There was a solicitor and we signed contracts and left him a cheque for 25k it was all taking a long time so I gave my friend cash instead, he then needed the rest of the money or he was going to loose his new house so I gave it to him (hence brainless) I have a written letter from him saying I gave him the money and it was for the house my solicitor has them. Something has come up with the deeds and there is a charge on them that is assumed paid but nobody wants to put it in writing on my deeds this charge go back before my friend bought the house my solicitor sent back the mortgage cheque like you said he could not get the deeds sorted. I just dont know where I am the bloke I gave the money to has bought a house so he doesent have cash to give back the mortgage cheque is gone back and I am sure the other mortgage company want the house or their money My solicitor is now sending me back my paperwork

Brendan
1 I gave him the cash I brought the receipts to the solicitor with the letter from him the contracts were signed at that time
3 According to my solicitor its common practice for them to give an undertaking about debts against the house when they get certain information. So when my friend bought this house his solicitor would have done that there was 47k to be paid back My solicitor said he must have given that undertaking or my friend couldent have boutght the house. The deeds were lost my solicitor then got new ones but this old 20 year old debt is still there. The original solicitor has been contacted many times but sends back vague answeres. so my solicitor said in his letter he could get no where and had to send back my mortgage or he would be in troule

I still don't understand this.

There is a judgement/charge on the property from the owner prior to your friend for 47K which is still outstanding and is preventing the transfer of ownership? The original solicitor cannot just give 'vague' answers.

There is no dispute that you payed €147K to your friend in payment for the property? You have receipts and a contract for this? Solicitors were involved? The priority is now is to get the €147K back. You need to speak to your solicitor and probably engage a new one.

Thank yo PM1234 that would be and ideal outcome would be to get my money back Brendan mentioned I might have some claim on his house in england and I am very greatful for all your help I am just so worried someone is going to come and put us on the street, the original solicitor said somethink like its ok he just cant find the papers just now and my solicitor said some will have to sue him

brainless said:

Thank yo PM1234 that would be and ideal outcome would be to get my money back Brendan mentioned I might have some claim on his house in england and I am very greatful for all your help I am just so worried someone is going to come and put us on the street, the original solicitor said somethink like its ok he just cant find the papers just now and my solicitor said some will have to sue him

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How sure are you there is a house in England?? Maybe (and I dont want to upset you here) you are the victim of a scam?

The original solicitor gave an undertaking to the vendor/friend's lender that there was good marketable title in order to drawdown the previous mortgage.

Your solicitor subsequently gave an undertaking to your lender that there was good marketable title, without which you could not have drawndown your mortgage. In order to do this the title deeds should have been fully investigated and searches carried out. This doesn't appear to have been done and since then problems have been discovered. Now your solicitor is walking away. The mortgage in your name has/is being redeemed. You no longer have a mortgage over this property. The title deeds are not in your name.

If the original judgement/charge is sorted out, are the title deeds and paperwork otherwise in order?

There is either part of this story missing or the original solicitor has some explaining to do. Engage another solicitor if necessary. Or forget about the title deeds and go about recovering the €147K already paid.

Television
within the last few weeks my friend has had a judgement of his own from the credit union for 18k but I am sure I did a search last night and paid to see the register for the area I always had a phone no and I found his exact house goodle earth which was when he left her march 07

PM1234 I was just thinking my friend got a re mortgage here abou 5 years ago he cleared that before he left so someone must have had deeds then wouldent they??

It depends on who acted for the top up. Presumably the vendors original solicitor did? Who either didn't have the title deeds at the time or subsequently lost them? Your solicitor presumably reconstituted the title deeds and discovered the prior charge?

Forget about the title deeds and the mortgage. Your solicitor has returned the cheque so you no longer have a mortgage on this property. Your name is not on the title deeds. Find out if there is an existing mortgage on the property and if the repayments are being met.

Go about recovering the €147K already paid. Engage another solicitor if necessary.

Essentially the issue here seems to be in relation to a charge on the property which was over 10 years ago. IT is very easy to see if this charge has been repaid- you contact the owner of the charge. You have to be very careful in how it is done though as you do not want to inadvertantly acknowledge the debt- must be done through your solicitor. If the charge has not been repaid then it may well now be statute barred. Again your solicitor will advise.

Most problems with title can be sorted out. It just takes time. Your solicitor probably cannot draw down without either resolving the issue or qualifying the title.

Surely your solicitor has told you what they intend to do- or what you need to do now? If not, go back and ask them, if they have said they cannot do anything then get another solicitor.