Title Deeds - who keeps them?

darkcloudi

I have just completed a purchase of a house and my solicitor is asking whether I should collect the title deeds from her or whether she should keep hold of them.

I thought these were sent to the mortgage provider. Is it correct for solicitors to keep hold of them?

Bit of a newbie and a FTB.

Thanks for the responses.

mar<

Rules have changed recently I think. Paper copies aren't worth anything nowadays as they're all kept online at the land registry, and anyone can purchase a copy.

There was a case recently where a couple bought a house thinking that the lodgers were the owners as they held a copy of the deeds.

clutton_2

you generally keep them yourselves, for historical interest only - a solicitor may charge you storage

seven-day-weekend

The Land registry holds the Title Deeds and that is now the only legal document.

The historic deeds are no longer legal documents, so it is up to you who keeps them (or indeed if you throw them away).

darkcloudi

Thanks everybody for your responses. Guess I should ask the solictor if they are to charge for storage, never thought if they would charge but thanks for bringing that up.

Seakay

If you would like to have the deeds for your own interest then just have them at home; there is no point in paying to store them as they don't relly have a legal significance. I asked to see ours recently and only then discovered that they had been destroyed because the previous owner didn't want them and the Land Registry had destroyed them. All you get now is an insignificant bit of printed paper - so no one should fall for a solicitor or mortgage lender trying to charge for storage.

andipandi_2

if your details are not on land registry database then the paper deeds are important,most are on their database since 1994,our solicitors holds our securely for free.

Richard_Webster

The Land Registry entries and any old Land Registry Land/Charge Certificate will not be important.

What could be important is any original lease - the Land Registry will have a copy but sometimes it is of poor qulity and is unreadable and sometimes their scanner company missed scanning some vital pages! It is worth keeping any original lease safely.

Also there can be other gems like copy planning and building reg consents, various copy plannng agreements and other stuff which looks very boring but which you may have to fork out £20 a go to get copies from the local Council when you sell and your buyer's solr wants to see them!

Particularly important are consents under covenants from builders etc for extensions - if you lose those you may have to pay for a restrictive covenant indemnity policy.

Sometimes there are covenants between a landowner and a builder when the area was first being developed which say things like "no more than 100 houses are to be built..." on some area. Its 10 years later and nobody is very sure which area the restriction applied to but there is a letter from the original landowner's solrs saying they are satisfied that the covenant has been complied with. It may look like a manky photocopy letter but if it can't be found then an indemnity policy to replace it could cost a hundred or two!

None of these other documents I've mentioned are actually "deeds" but they are mighty important when you sell and could cost a bit to replace or provide equivalent protection for your buyer, so they need keeping safe.

Unless you know what you are looking for it would be all too easy to get the package of documents and think they are all rubbish and throw them away. Some are rubbish, but the thing is knowing what is and what isn't!

As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients