Paid off mortgage, now what do I do with the deeds?

yummoney

Hi there,
I was very fortunate to recently pay off my mortgage completely. I had just bought the house 2 years ago, and the mortgage was with Bank of Ireland (I live in Ireland).

6 weeks later and I have now received the deeds from the bank. However, the lady at the bank said I should send them to my solicitor as he will have to do one last thing with the land registry (she didn't know exactly what!).

So, I was wondering, is anyone aware of what might need to be done by my solicitor? If it is just something to do with informing the land registry that I am now the full owner of the house, is this something I can do myself (to avoid paying any further solicitor fees?).

On the other hand, would you recommend I still go back to my solicitor to check all the deeds I got from the bank are in order?

Lastly, does anyone recommend a good secure place to store deeds?

Thanks for your time!

Beckyy

I can't be of any help with what still needs to be done, but my solicitor stores deeds free of charge. It could be worth giving them a ring to ask about it and enquiring if there's anything else to be done? Well done on becoming mortgage free

sweetilemon

Its recommended your solicitor stores the deeds to your house, not sure what else they need to do. Not a good idea for the property deeds to be stored in the property.

amibovvered

I was informed by the land registry when I paid off my mortgage a few years ago that once a property has been registered the paper deeds are no longer of any value so there is no need to store them securely, certainly not to pay to store them. Wherever you keep birth certificates etc would be quite sufficient.

If I've been misinformed I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be quick to correct me!

Goldiegirl

When you say that you live in Ireland, I assume it's Northern Ireland.

The only thing I can think of is that your solicitor could check to make sure that the Bank of Ireland has removed it's charge from the Land Registry.

The lender should have removed their charge on the property as part of the redemption process.

In this electronic age, the title deeds are no longer required to prove ownership of the property. The deeds can safely be stored with the rest of your paperwork at home.

POPPYOSCAR

Goldiegirl wrote: »

When you say that you live in Ireland, I assume it's Northern Ireland.

The only thing I can think of is that your solicitor could check to make sure that the Bank of Ireland has removed it's charge from the Land Registry.

The lender should have removed their charge on the property as part of the redemption process.

In this electronic age, the title deeds are no longer required to prove ownership of the property. The deeds can safely be stored with the rest of your paperwork at home.

That is good to know.

Several years ago we had a letter to say that our Deeds held by Bradford and Bingley had been destroyed in a fire. They said that they had taken out an insurance policy which would cover us if there were any problems in the future.

So we do not know if we even have any deeds anymore.

Land_Registry

It is likely to depend on where the property is located. The relevant websites to check for information on properties in Ireland are
Northern Ireland and Ireland (Eire)

If the property is in England & Wales then the FAQ re the old deeds to a registered property will be of interest.

In E&W many lenders 'discharge the charge' direct with Land Registry but charge an admin fee for doing this and completing matters at their end. A solicitor can sometimes be involved but if it is solely a discharge then that would be rare unless you instructed someone to act for you. I do not know what happens in Ireland (North or South) I'm afraid.