Bank or Solicitors have lost my Title Deeds

david29dpo

The deeds should not be destroyed without you consent. Someone must have them. It is true you dont need them but many people like to have them.

Meldrews_wife

david29dpo wrote: »

The deeds should not be destroyed without you consent. Someone must have them. It is true you dont need them but many people like to have them.

Exactly, David. The deeds have a significance beyond the paper they are printed on. To me, they represent the acknowledgement that the years of being at the mercy of the banks and the winds of fortune are over!:beer:

Catti

Meldrew - ask your solicitor to at least check his archived file - they may simply have been left in there!

Spamface_2

I have a query relating to the deeds of my Dad's house, who recently passed away. He had left a £1 balance so Woolwich/Barclays were holding the deeds. My Mum passed away in 1990, but her name was still on the deeds. We sent the Grant of Probate off to Barclays to get the deeds sorted out, but they took over 2 months to send them and even then, they told us that they still needed to remove the bank's name from the deeds. Is that normal, or should they be much quicker? Whilst waiting for the deeds, the housing market crashed and we have now had trouble selling the house and had to reduce it significantly.

mizzbiz

Can anyone explain to me why the banks hold your deeds until mortgage is paid off? Is this their security? From what I understand they don't own the house legally, despite having an interest in it, so is there any reason why you can't hold your own deeds whilst still mortgaging?

poppysarah

Because you could use the deeds to remortgage.


[SIZE=-1][/SIZE][SIZE=-1]A mortgage is a document signed by a borrower when a home loan is made that gives the lenders the right to take possession of the property if the borrower fails to make loan payments.
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The deeds are the way they show who owns it and who's got first dibs if you don't pay the mortgage.

paddy's_mum

Meldrew's wife - you may be worrying about nothing, really! Quick way of dealing with it - ring the Land Registry office that deals with the area in which your property is situated and ask them if the property is registered. If it is, then there will be a Land Certificate which supersedes any amount of old papers (though I grant you they are of great interest in their own right). Ask LR how you obtain a replacement Certificate - they will have met this situation many times before and will be able to guide you.

I have always found LR staff very helpful and courteous and so far as I recall, enquiries to them are usually free of charge.

Richard_Webster

ask them if the property is registered. If it is, then there will be a Land Certificate

There used to be a separate "Land Certificate" which contained copies of the registry entries and this document would sometimes be referred to as "Deeds" and handed over at completion of a sale. These are not issued any longer, and if sent to the Land Registry for updating, are simply destroyed. They simply produce official copies of the entries at the Registry which are basically photocopies with a watermark.