Deeds

adr0ck

i thought the mortage company always held onto the deeds and only passed them onto solicitors for sales etc.......if the mortgage company has no deeds then how do they have a claim over the property?

MyUserNamesTaken

adr0ck wrote:

i thought the mortage company always held onto the deeds and only passed them onto solicitors for sales etc.......if the mortgage company has no deeds then how do they have a claim over the property?

It's all electronically stored at Land Registry now, so the deeds aren't required anymore. Any charge or interest in the property is also logged at Land Registry.

Andyboy

Any Documents referred to on the Land Registry register in a note should be held by the Land Registry in one of their many storage sites in case it is needed in the future for more specific information.

davelewis

The previous references to the Land Registry are all correct. If the property is registered - you don't need any deeds - just a copy of the register and title plan held by the registry.

If not registered - can be a bit more tricky. If the old deeds really are lost - you will have to register the property on sale (but i imagine it will be up to the purchasers solicitor to do this) via statutory declaration - i.e. a formal declaration that you do indeed own the property and have lived there for x no. of years, deeds have been lost etc. If might affect the title you are granted (you might not get an absolute title - might get simply 'good' or 'possessory') but this really shouldn't matter.

Don't worry - the situation is not beyond repair - but of course it would be far simpler if the old deeds (if unregistered) did turn up.

Hope this helps

Johnhowell

Following my re-mortgage last year I received a letter from Nationwide which stated " ... Land Registry Act 2002, Title Documents are no longer required by the Land Registry or Lender".

In the pack are the orginal plans of the site being developed in the 1980's and the subsequent searches for each purchase.

I think only old deeds and papers should be retained for historical interest and family history - so get them away from banks and solicitors NOW!

Solicitors are renowned for throwing old papers away - even though they charge clients to "store" their deeds. I wish solicitors where forced to apply Quality Assurance procedures like every other industry in this country. I bet most would fail badly. My mother needed to re-write her will when her husband died and the solicitor never found the "safely" stored will!

John