deeds - who holds them?

free4440273 · 11 February 2007 at 3:51PM

sorry, i know this has been asked umpteen times before i am sure. i am completing on my house purchase soon. i have a standars 25 yr fixed rate (3 yrs) mortgage so, no, i do not 'own' the house. given this, does the building society hold the deeds or myself. i am asking this because i remember reading on another thread once that nowadays even if you have a mortage on the property you can still receive the deeds (or perhaps i just misunderstood?). once i pay my entire mortgage off, will i then receive the deeds? thanks all as always

icklejulez · 11 February 2007 at 3:54PM

I bought 3 years ago and remortgaged last year. I finally found my feefd with the previous mortgage company as I am due to exchange contracts soon. So your deeds in my opinion could be anywhere!!!

1jim · 11 February 2007 at 5:09PM

Hi
I was asking this over on mortgages as I am remortgaging
my current building society (coventry) has my deeds
the new bank (cheltenham and gloucester) does not want the deeds when the remortgage goes through, it seems that I get them or I can pay a solicitor to keep them safe for me
Hadnt come across this before as I just assumed that all mortgage companied kept the deeds until you paid of the mortgage
hope that helps
Jim

free4440273 · 11 February 2007 at 5:58PM

...i also assumed that the building society kept kept hold of the deeds if you had a mortgage - if anyone can provide clarity on this i would really appreciate it

clutton_2 · 11 February 2007 at 7:18PM

"deeds" are now kept electronically - so old paperwork deeds are not necessary to prove ownership - provided the property is already registered - but keep them anyway they are very interesting historical docs. Many solicitors dont want to keep them either due to storage costs.

chirpy007 · 11 February 2007 at 7:20PM

As said they are no longer held by the mortgage company and will be sent to you. Mine are with a solicitor in town who stores them for free.

free4440273 · 11 February 2007 at 9:23PM

...thanks clutton and chirpy - but just to clarify: are the deeds sent to me EVEN IF i still have a mortgage on the property (which i do have)? thanks

have a good monday week also.

carol_a_3 · 11 February 2007 at 9:34PM

We still have an outstanding mortgage (C&G) and about two years ago the deeds were sent to us through the normal post, not recorded or anything and told they are not needed any more by the building society as it's all stored electronically as stated above. It said keep them in case they're needed when selling the house etc.

looby-loo_2 · 11 February 2007 at 9:42PM

As has been said alread, paper deeds are not needed because they are stored electronically. I heard on Radio 4 sometime ago that some mortgage companies are destroying these historical documents without the permission of the householder. They adviced to write in saying you wanted the kept.

Our deeds were 'lost' 25 years ago and we had to take a bridging loan for 19 weeks till the vendors solicitor found them to buy this house. We payed off our mortgage last September and we're now told the deeds are 'lost' again. Britania say it doesn't matter as they are stored electronically - 180 years of history matters to me so I'm not best pleased.

silvercar · 11 February 2007 at 9:45PM

coventry BS sent loads of paperwork to us ans they decided not to hold onto it a few years ago. when we came to move we needed the building regs certificate for an extension done by the previous owners. Luckily we found it amongst the papers; if we had thrown them away it would have delayed our sale and/or cost us money.

MegS · 11 February 2007 at 9:45PM

Depends on your lender, most aren't interested and its all down to the office copy entries anyway but people like Mortgage Express want everything. At our solicitors if we have old deeds (like conveyances) that are not needed we take them round to the records office of the museum for their archives. We had one from 1737 which was interesting.