House deeds

TrueYorkie

Is it necessary to still pay a mortgage provider to keep paper copy of your house deeds as mine is charging me a small annual charge to keep hold of the deeds and people are telling me its not necessary as it online now.

Does anyone have any experience of this.

Goldiegirl

From the sound of it you have some sort of 'Deedstore' arrangement, where you finished your mortgage, but kept a small balance outstanding, so the lender can look after your Deeds.

In this electronic age the Title Deeds are no longer the important documents they once were. Your proof of ownership is stored by the Land Registry and you don't need the Title Deeds to confirm your ownership.

However, it is nice to have the Deeds, and if it's an older property they are historical documents.

When I finished my mortgage, my lender sent the Deeds to me, and they now reside in a metal box in my house.

You'd be perfectly safe to ask for your deeds to be sent to you, if you didn't want your old lender to look after them any more

Richard_Watters

If the property is registered there's no need for the Lender to hold the deeds (once registered the deeds are effectively obsolete). Ask them to send them to you.

If the property is not registered then your solicitor or Lender will keep the deeds in a secure place as these will be required until the property is sold (at which time the property will be registered and they will no longer be needed).

If you're not sure if the property is registered or not you'll need to check with the Land Registry.

Land_Registry

Richard Watters and Goldiegirl have covered this already and as they mention IF the property is in England & Wales and is registered then the paper deeds are no longer required to prove ownership for example.

In the past people would often keep their paper deeds with the bank and in some cases this was for safe-keeping.

If you bought or mortgaged the property in the last 20 years then it should be registered. You can check the 'trigger date' for first registration in our Practice Guide 51 - simply look up your area and check the date of compulsory registration.

Alternatively you can use our Find a Property service and check the actual register details online for £3. If the search reveals information as being available you will need to register before paying and viewing. If the service states 'No information available' then it is likely that the property is unregistered and you don't pay a fee.

The above is normally sufficient to confirm whether the property is registered and the records held electronically.