What did you do with your deeds?

Sweey_as_a_nut

I have been in possession of the deeds to my house now for over 20 years, and have kept them upstairs in a file cabinet. However, with all that's going on in the country, I feel some people are going to get more desperate in their search for money. So today I went into Barclays the bank I use, to ask the ifs and buts about them storing my deeds and a few other documents, and found they charge £1.50 per calender month and £10 to access my documents each time I might need to.

What have you done regarding this?

As I am now on my own, I am wondering can my children access the documents when I am gone. I have made a will and would prefer my children to have access to them other that a solicitor.

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

Janey3

Our deeds are with a Bank who charge the same as the figure you quoted. We did need to access them a while back and had to pay the £10 fee:(. If it was left to me, we would have them at home, but OH thinks they are safer in the bank.

We photocopied all the documents and keep the copies at home. We have given a sealed copy of our Will and all relevant details to our next of kin/Executor.

Mojisola

If you register your house with the Land Registry then it wouldn't matter if something to happened to them. There is a fee for registration but, after that, you could keep them at home for free.

seven-day-weekend

You don't actually need to keep anything once your property is registered with Land Registry; the historical documents are for interest only, the Land Registry entry is the important bit.

Our Bank sent us our historical documents back, saying they were of no legal value, just historical interest, we just keep them with all our other documents at home..

You can file them in the bin if you want.

So I would just carry on keeping them at home if you want to keep them, once your house is registered with Land Registry the historical documents are no good to anyone.

missile

I have a copy at home and my solicitor stores the original for free.

HoofeHearted

Mine are stored for free by the Halifax Bank. They were the ones that gave us the mortgage for the house. Technically, I still have the mortgage with them. They have a deal where you pay off your mortgage, less £125. Then your mortgage reverts to a "Deed Store Mortgage". That way they store your deeds for free, until you pay them £125.

Don't know of there is a fee to view the deeds.

scotsbob

HoofeHearted wrote: »

Don't know of there is a fee to view the deeds.

Yes there usually is.

This is why banks, building societies and solicitors are so keen to promote "free storage". The storage is free but they charge a retrieval fee every time you want to look at them. I have heard of £130 being quoted recently.

Farway

I have them at home, as my house is registered with Land Registry they are of no legal significance any way

electricdreams

my solicitor who did the conveyancing when I bought the house has them in their deed store. Doesn't cost anything, and didn't cost me anything when I had to look at them either

Errata

As people have pointed out, there's no longer a need to keep the physical deeds, but if you have an old and/or interesting property they're worth keeping for any research/genealogy/etc that future family members may be interested in.

lilac_lady

My deeds are with the solicitor who holds my will.