Should I keep deeds for my old house

overlykeensaver

I am having a clearout! I have found the searches and deeds schedule for the house that I used to live in. We sold it over 1.5 years ago.

Does anyone know if there is any reason for me to keep these or can I shred all the paperwork?

Of course I am keeping all the searches, deeds etc related to my current home!

N79

If the deeds have historic value (they have zero legal value as they will have been superseded by registration at the Land Registry) then you could offer them to either the current owners or a local museum / archives. If they have zero historical value (eg modern house with no interesting history going back 300 years) then just destroy them. (Sadly many deeds are destroyed which contain hundreds of years of history which is not recorded elsewhere).

G_M

Depends what you mean by 'deeds'.

If it includes conveyances, some of which might grant rights/responsibilities on the owner referred to in the Land Registry Title, then offer them to the current owner. Or just send them.

tyllwyd

I'd give/send them to the new owners. There may be information on the deeds that could be useful, and it seems unfair to shred them without even giving the owners the option to look at them.

overlykeensaver

thanks for your thoughts. Wouldn't the new owners have copies of the same docs that I already have though?Everything I have seems to be a copy and not the original.

G_M

overlykeensaver wrote: »

thanks for your thoughts. Wouldn't the new owners have copies of the same docs that I already have though?Everything I have seems to be a copy and not the original.

Well, without seeing what you're talking about it's impossible to know!

In theory, the new owners should have it all, but life doesn't always work like that. They may not.

If the 'deeds' are just the Land Registry Title documents, well, the Land Registry holds these so old ones are worthless. But otherwise I'd put them in the post. Cost you a quid or so and you're only going to shred them........

CloudCuckooLand

Let the new owners have the choice - they can always go in their recycling bin.

If there's an old floor plan, or map layout, it could be interesting/useful - seeing ours from 1970 helped us understand the construction of a dormer and under-roof storage area. Saved us doing something stupid when considering ripping it out...