No registered title, or the deeds are missing? Sell it fast — we sort the paperwork.
Old family homes, inherited houses and properties that haven't changed hands in decades are often unregistered, and the deeds can be anywhere or nowhere. We buy the house exactly as it stands and handle the registration ourselves. One cash offer, no tracing, no waiting on the Land Registry — anywhere in England.
Sort it, then sell via an agent
As it stands, to us
The house is fine. Proving you own it is the slow part.
Most homes are registered with HM Land Registry, so a buyer's solicitor can check ownership in minutes. An unregistered property has no register entry, so the solicitor has to read the original paper deeds and check an unbroken chain of ownership going back years. If a document is missing, the signatures don't match or a boundary is vague, everything stops. Buyers who need a mortgage rarely wait, and many walk away from what they can't easily check.
The deeds have to be found
For an unregistered house, the paper deeds are the proof of ownership. They may be with a former solicitor, a long-repaid lender, a deposit box or the back of a drawer, or they may have been lost years ago.
The chain has to be unbroken
The buyer's solicitor has to see how ownership passed from one person to the next, usually for at least fifteen years back. Gaps, missing signatures or an old will that was never properly dealt with all have to be explained.
First registration takes time
Selling an unregistered house triggers compulsory first registration. The paperwork is more involved than a normal transfer, and the Land Registry can take weeks or months to process it, especially if it has questions.
Lenders get nervous
A buyer's mortgage lender wants a title good enough to register. If there's a gap, a vague boundary or a lower class of title, the lender may delay, ask for insurance or refuse, and the buyer's sale falls over.
We take the house as it is. You don't trace, certify or register anything.
Selling an unregistered house to us is a normal sale of the property, with the title work on our side of the table. Here's what happens to each piece, so you know exactly what you're agreeing to before we make an offer.
The missing deeds
You don't have to find them. If you have some paperwork, send it. If you don't, our solicitors trace what they can and look at other evidence of ownership. The cost is priced into our offer, not billed to you.
First registration
We deal with registering the property with the Land Registry after completion, including the application, the fee and any questions it raises. The sale can complete while that is in progress.
Gaps in the chain
An old will, an unregistered transfer or a missing signature. Our solicitors look at how serious it is and, where needed, cover the risk with title indemnity insurance, so the gap doesn't stop the sale.
The boundaries
Unregistered houses often have vague or undocumented boundaries. We buy as it stands and deal with any clarification afterwards, so a hedge-or-fence question doesn't hold up completion.
The date
Completion on a date that suits you, often within a couple of weeks. If the house is part of an estate, we work to the grant of probate, and our probate page covers how that works.
The solicitors
We instruct and pay for solicitors on our side and cover yours, so there are no legal fees to find. Any mortgage on the house is repaid from the proceeds.
From first message to completion, without hunting for a single deed
The same four steps we use for every purchase, with a title check in place of a long wait.
Tell us about the house and the title
Postcode, type, and whatever you know about the deeds: lost, held by someone else or never registered. The form takes a minute; WhatsApp works too.
Get a firm cash offer
We look at the house and the likely cost and risk of sorting the title, and come back with a figure you can rely on — usually within the hour. No obligation.
Our solicitors trace the title
We instruct and pay for solicitors on both sides. They search for the deeds and for other proof of ownership. You send whatever paperwork you have and we chase the rest.
Complete
Any mortgage repaid, the money lands on a date that suits you and first registration is ours to finish. Typically 14 days from acceptance.
What helps us make an offer
- The address and how long the house has been in the family
- Whether you know the title is unregistered
- Any deeds, conveyances or old solicitor letters you have
- The name of any former solicitor or lender who might hold them
- Whether there is a will, and whether probate has been granted
- Any known boundary, access or ownership disputes
- Any mortgage on the property and the redemption figure
- The date you'd like to complete by
Sort the title first vs. sell as it stands: a typical inherited three-bed
Take a 3-bed semi worth £150,000, in the same family for fifty years and never registered, with the deeds lost after the last solicitor closed — the kind of house we're asked about every week in Lincoln, Carlisle and Grimsby. A buyer's solicitor couldn't prove the chain and the sale stalled.
| 3-bed semi, unregistered, deeds missing | Sort the title, then sell | Sell as it stands to us |
|---|---|---|
| Time before it can be marketed | 2–6 months to trace the deeds or gather evidence, apply and register — longer if the Land Registry has questions | None — offer the day you ask |
| Sale price | £142,500 (95% of the registered value, after a survey chip) | £125,375 cash offer (fixed) |
| Title work & registration | −£2,500 (estimated; a difficult title costs far more) | £0 |
| Agent, conveyancing & EPC | −£5,900 | £0 — we pay both sides' solicitors |
| Mortgage, council tax & insurance while waiting | −£2,400 (about 6 months) | −£150 (14 days) |
| Will buyers and lenders accept it afterwards? | Usually, once registered, but a lower class of title can still put some off | Doesn't matter — no lender |
| Chance it falls through | Roughly 1 in 4 once it's on the market | None — no chain, no lender |
| Time to money | 8–12 months, if it completes first time | About 14 days |
| Net in your pocket | ≈ £131,700 | ≈ £125,225 |
Worked example, not a valuation, and not legal advice. Sorting the title first and selling through an agent can leave you with more — here by roughly £6,500 — if the deeds are found or the evidence is accepted, the Land Registry registers it without fuss, and the sale then completes first time. It also means paying for the work before you meet a buyer, waiting most of a year, and accepting that a difficult title can still be given a lower class or refused. If you can't find the deeds, can't afford the delay, or can't be sure what the Land Registry will say, selling as it stands buys you a date and a certain number. Your own figures are in the comparator at the top of the page.
The towns where we're most often asked to buy unregistered houses
Long-held family homes that have passed down through generations, in towns where the next buyer needs a mortgage and a solicitor who can check the title quickly. Each page below has the local detail: what a house there is worth and how the market behaves.
Somewhere else? We buy unregistered houses anywhere in England. Start from the county: Cumbria · Lincolnshire · or just send the postcode.
Selling a house with an unregistered title or lost deeds: what to know first
If you're searching for how to sell a house with an unregistered title, or what to do when the title deeds are missing, the first thing to know is that it rarely means you don't own the house. It means ownership is proved by paper rather than by an entry on the Land Registry, and the paper is hard to find or incomplete. That is a fixable problem, but it is slower than selling a registered house, and a buyer needing a mortgage will usually want it fixed first.
Check whether it really is unregistered
Many owners assume a house is unregistered when it isn't, or the other way round. You can check the property on the Land Registry's online service for a small fee. If a title number comes back, the house is registered and a copy of the register will prove ownership, which is usually far simpler than finding the deeds. If nothing comes back, it is probably unregistered, and your solicitor can confirm.
Try to find the deeds
Look first at home, then ask any solicitor who acted on a previous purchase or sale. Ask any lender who held a mortgage on the house, because lenders often kept the deeds and a repaid mortgage may mean they can be returned. A solicitor can also search for deeds that were lodged with a firm that has since closed, through the professional regulators. Don't pay for a registration service until you've tried these routes.
If they can't be found
You can often still prove ownership with other evidence, such as old conveyances, a statutory declaration about how long you or your family have lived there, rate bills, and evidence of undisputed occupation. The Land Registry may then register the property, sometimes with a lower class of title than an absolute one. A lower class can put lenders off, and title indemnity insurance can cover the gap, but the details matter, so take advice from a solicitor.
What first registration involves
Selling an unregistered house triggers compulsory first registration, which the buyer must apply for within two months of completion. You can also register voluntarily before selling, which can speed a sale, and the Land Registry's fee for it depends on the value of the property. If the application is incomplete the Land Registry will raise questions, which is where delays come from. Rules and fees change, so check the current position on gov.uk.
If the owner has died
Unregistered houses are often inherited, and the missing deeds and the missing grant of probate tend to arrive together. The executor needs probate before the house can be sold or registered. Our probate house page covers the process and the tax, and we can work to the grant while our solicitors deal with the title.
Why cash makes it easier
A mortgage lender wants a title good enough to register, so a missing deed or a gap in the chain can freeze the whole sale. A cash buyer for a house with an unregistered title isn't borrowing against it, so none of that applies: we can take a house with lost deeds, a thin evidence trail or a lower class of title, and still complete in a fortnight.
What it's worth
Honestly: less than the same house with a clean registered title. We're buying a house whose title needs work, and taking on the legal cost, the time and the risk that the Land Registry takes a cautious view. Our offers on unregistered houses usually land at around 80–88% of the registered value, depending on how much is missing, with every fee paid by us. Against that, sorting the title first costs money up front, takes many months, and still leaves a one-in-four chance the buyer's lender backs out — which is why the net figures in the comparator at the top of this page are closer than the headline percentages suggest. If you'd like to see the same maths for your own house, ask for a figure; it takes a minute and costs nothing.
A missing title is one of several reasons a lender may refuse a house. If yours has others too, our unmortgageable house page covers the wider picture.