House deeds..worth the paper they are written on?

leosayer39

Hi all,

Well the question is in the header, are house deeds worth anything at all? Are they worth the paper they are written on?

I am aware that duplicates can be requested from the land registry, so what is the real value of the originals?

Before you reply to this thread you should have a read of the following

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1051165

Leo

clutton_2

if your property is already registered at the land registry - then you do not need your paper deeds to prove ownership - but they are interesting from an historic viewpoint - especially if you have an older property

leosayer39

Hi Clutton,

That was quick,

Thanks for that and yes, the property is well and truly registered at the land registry, I have owned this house for over ten years.

I do hope that you read my other thread before you answered this one. If you did you will see my reasoning for asking the question in the first place.

Leo

terryw

leosayer39 wrote: »

Hi all,

Well the question is in the header, are house deeds worth anything at all? Are they worth the paper they are written on?

I am aware that duplicates can be requested from the land registry, so what is the real value of the originals?

Before you reply to this thread you should have a read of the following

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1051165

Leo

If a property is registered with the Land Registry then the "deeds" are really only of historical or sentimental value. Anyone can obtain a copy of from the Land Registry.
However in the pad of documents called the "deeds" it is possible that there will be some papers which just might be needed on the sale of a property , for example insurance policies, planning permission ( although duplicates of such things could always be obtained elsewhere). If there is a mortgage on the property then the new buyer's solicitor will require an undertaking that the mortgage will be repaid.

Regarding your other post, I fear that you have misunderstood "no sale no fee".

the poster formerly known as
terryw

olly300

As far as am aware, like Clutton states you don't need the deeds.

However if there is stuff on the paper documents that the Land Registry hasn't recorded properly i.e. who owes a joint front drive/garden where your neighbour has a right of way, then it makes it harder to settle any subsequent disputes in later years.

I suggest if you have an agreement that you signed with the solicitor that clearly states no sale -no fee then you follow the practice's complaints procedure in writing and take it all the way until they give you your deeds back. Just phone up the practice and ask them what their complaints procedure is.

If you don't but you can prove it was clearly advertised as that and the subsequent documentation backs this up then you should still complain otherwise you need to pay the solicitor.

Richard_Webster

It's not the proof of ownership issue that is the one that usually causes the problems.

It's all the other documents such as planning permissions and agreements with the Council made by the developer to enable the development to go ahead. This kind of stuff can cost perhaps £20 per document to replace by getting copies from the Council.

On one such development recently where we are acting for someone selling, we wrote to the Council asking for the Planning Permission and Building Control Completion Certificate for the completion of the flat in question and they said there were so many documents (in what is a fairly complicated area for developments) they couldn't untangle which ones were the right ones. The alternative was paying his former solicitors about £50-£60 to provide the documents from their off site storage location. (We could try to challenge this but they will probably have covered it in their Client Care letter when our client instructed them to deal with the purchase a few years ago.)

On newish developments it is particular problem. The builder's solicitors will often supply a legal information sheet that will say things like "On your search you will see Planning permissions 12345, 12345/1, 12345/2. These all relate to Stage II of the development and as this part of Stage III, they have not been supplied." That kind of thing is a help, otherwise buyer's solicitors want to see everything that could possibly be relevant, even if the seller's solicitor suspects, but can't prove that it isn't relevant. So keeping this kind of stuff is tremendously helpful to speed a sale...

WillowCat

Only you know what paperwork you supplied the solicitor with then you instructed them for your sale, therefore only you know how important/replaceable the documents are. As the OP's have said, it's not the land registry certificate that's the issue.

I gave my solicitor originals of planning consent documents, insurance certs for windows, boiler, timber treatment and also building regs certs where applicable. I'd hate to try to replace all of those.

It's just possible that on an older, but unimproved house you might not have given them anything of relevance. Though if you have left the 'historical' deeds, it would be a shame for any new owners to never seen them, even if they are only for historical interest.