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Legal Eagle

Miscellaneous

Q: 'Registration of caution' - will it affect funding?

An elderly relation offered to give a sum of money to finance my production. He recently died and his widow, who inherited his estate, was equally keen but has been presented with a 'registration of caution' lodged with the Land Registry regarding her inheritance. What are the implications of this?

A: I cannot see the link between a Land Registry caution and financing your show, unless you are suggesting the widow cannot raise the money to finance your production without realising the proceeds of her inheritance, which involves selling a property forming part of that inheritance.

Registering a 'caution' against a Land Registry title is a method of ensuring that the registered property cannot be sold without prior notice to the cautioner, who claims an interest of some kind in the property concerned.

Any prospective purchaser of the property will require the vendor to get the caution removed from the title before the purchase proceeds. This is done by a process of 'warming off' the caution by means of a notice lodged with the Land Registry and sent to the cautioner who is then obliged either to make good his claim on the property or have the caution removed from the title.

You say that the caution was lodged regarding the widow's inheritance, which makes me think that perhaps you are confusing it with a similar process involving the registration of a 'caveat' at the Probate Registry in order to ensure that the caveator is given notice of any application for probate of a disputed will.

Without more detail regarding the deceased's ownership of the property and whether his widow has obtained a grant of probate in respect of his estate and what is the nature of the claim behind registration of the caution or caveat and what other assets apart from the property are comprised in the estate which can be used to finance your protection. But I cannot advise further without possibly misplaced speculation.

First published November 2001