What did you do with your deeds?

morag1202

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Your deeds will only be registered at the land registry if you bought it after whatever date they went digital on. However, if you find you're not already registered, you can do so voluntarily. At which point your paper deeds will become obsolete.

Found this in wiki

In 1990 the provision of compulsory registration was brought to the whole of England and Wales, the ten millionth title was registered, and. for the first time, the Land Register was opened to public inspection.
Although compulsory registration had now spread to the whole of its jurisdiction, compulsion only occurred when a property was sold. This was a serious bar to the registration of the whole of England and Wales, and in 1998 new triggers for registration were introduced, dramatically increasing the rate of registration of land. These triggers included gifts of land, assent of land on death and raising monies by mortgages on the land.

hethmar

Im with the guys who are telling you that anyone paying to store these obsolete documents are wasting their money (not very MSE!). I think ours is stuffed in a drawer here somewhere but it doesnt matter as our property is registered.

You can check the land registry to see if your deeds are recorded and always get a further copy for a few quid if needs be.

Its worth checking anyway if your house is possibly not registered as you dont want squatters claiming rights on any land!

http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/

(Watch out for similar sounding sites which are profit making companies!!)

Sweey_as_a_nut

I checked using the link provided, and for my area it said provided I bought the property after 1985 it was registered and the deeds are not worth spending £18 per year to keep safe, Barclays never told me that.

Once again thanks.

andyrules

Sweey_as_a_nut wrote: »

I checked using the link provided, and for my area it said provided I bought the property after 1985 it was registered and the deeds are not worth spending £18 per year to keep safe, Barclays never told me that.

Once again thanks.

Where did you look? I've just put my details in and it says there is no price listed, all it says is that it's freehold. Does that mean it's registered?

Savvy_Sue

andyrules wrote: »

Where did you look? I've just put my details in and it says there is no price listed, all it says is that it's freehold. Does that mean it's registered?

I think if it says it's freehold, then it's registered, but that they don't have any information on the priced paid last time it changed hands. If you're willing to pay £4, you can have a copy of your deeds, and for another £4 you can have a map showing your boundaries (which may or may not be clear!), and for a further £6.50 you can download details of your flood risk. You can get that information for free from the environment agency though ... don't know if the Land Registry information is more detailed.

andyrules

Thanks Sue, we bought in 1992, but have remortgaged several times since. I noticed the extra bits you can purchase, so I guess if they have these it must be registered. It seems a very 'busy' site so I wondered if I'd missed something or put my details in the wrong bit.

I do hope people who have been led to believe they need to pay for storage now think again.

I love this board!

Battybird

We bought our house 10 years ago, and our deeds were stored at the solicitors. No fee was requested.

We noticed about 6 months ago that the solicitors office had changed names, so I phoned to see if our deeds were still at the office. They have been moved to another office about 15 miles away, and the solicitor said we would receive a letter with a storage number of the deeds. We haven't received a letter. (and completely forgot about them until I read this thread)

I'm quite annoyed that our deeds were moved without telling us, and that we haven't received the letter. Does anybody have an idea how much the solicitor would charge if I asked for the deeds back?

I know I can phone up to ask (and I will) but don't want to get a shock if it costs a fortune.

Francesanne

Mine are stored free of charge with the Nationwide.

Farway

Battybird wrote: »

I'm quite annoyed that our deeds were moved without telling us, and that we haven't received the letter. Does anybody have an idea how much the solicitor would charge if I asked for the deeds back?

I know I can phone up to ask (and I will) but don't want to get a shock if it costs a fortune.

There is thread somewhere on MSE about solicitor wanting £30 to return an original will to the owner, so this could be a guide price

Of course if not of historical importance you perhaps could register the house with Land Registry yourself and just ignore the deeds?

alezzandro

hethmar wrote: »

LAND REGISTRY WEBSITE

(Watch out for similar sounding sites which are profit making companies!!)

I am with hethmar. And, by the way, I suggest you refer to this website for the deeds of any house you might be interested in.

Te website gives you access to: deeds, land plan and flood risk. Quite useful information that might save you some solicitor fee.

slightly OT, there is also a very interesting report (free of charge) on average house prices.