Title deeds. Totally confused

lozzark

I bought my house in 1982 with a Mortgage from NatWest. About 10 years ago I switched provider to the Cheshire BS who have recently been taken over by Nationwide. I completed payment of the mortgage with the Cheshire but left £1 mortgage & deeds with them. For a while I had to pay document storage, but then they decided to make the service free. At some point in the last 10 years they sent me a pile of what look like deeds, saying they did not need to keep them. This month Nationwide said they were not keeping deeds, the title was registered and the account was closed and sent me what remained of the title deeds. My question is that in all the documents they have sent me there is not one that seems to be between me and the previous owner (I expected a big thick document signed by both). In the second set they sent me only the deed between the builder and first purchaser was included. Should I be bothered? I checked at the land registry and my wife and I are the registered owners. However, I noticed that the Nationwide still had a charge on the property. Is that right? Should I leave it or get Nationwide to remove the charge?

Goldiegirl

lozzark wrote: »

Should I be bothered?

There's no need to be bothered about the title deeds.


Deeds are no longer needed to confirm that you own the property, as everything is held electronically now. The deeds are really just historical documents, which are nice to have, particularly for an older house.


But you should get the Nationwide to remove the charge on the property. While they were looking after the deeds for you, they were effectively keeping the mortgage open with a small balance, and as mortgage holders kept their charge on the property. But as they've only been in touch with you in the last month to say that they've closed the account, they've probably only just applied to get their charge removed, and the Land Registry records have not yet been updated.


I'd check in about a months time, and if the charge is still showing, chase Nationwide up at that point

vw100

Deeds are all held electronically now at the Land Registry. Good step for you to check that, the only thing is making sure the Nationwide charge is off as Goldiegirl states. I would give it about 2 months as I think the LR is a bit behind.

Land_Registry

Adindas - you probably want the government website
The one you have linked to is a third party website