Mortgage House Deeds

Ambelero

I am now in a lucky position and have finished paying my mortgage. My Building Society has stated they will keep them for an annual fee of £25.00 and will leave a balance owing of £5.00 (just to keep the mortgage live). I have been told that you do not really need your deeds as ownership etc will be on a computer site so if I held them at home and the worst happened and I lost them or there was a fire I could still obtain confirmation that the house is mine. Does anyone know if this is right?

magpiecottage

If you live in England or Wales and your property is Registered Land then the Land Registry records (now digital) are considered definitive.

We have the hard copies from the old days for ours held in a vault at a solicitor's office "somewhere in England", a hard copy in a filing box in the house and three digital copies - one of which is kept outside the house.

But only the Land Registry record really counts.

kingstreet

Although the hard copies aren't actually proof of ownership if the land is registered, useful documents may still be there in the pack, such as lease, covenants, certificates etc.

Land_Registry

As magpiecottage posts if the property is in England or Wales and registered then the proof of ownership should be held by us electronically.

A prospective buyer for example would not rely on the old deeds/documents but on the electronic record to confirm who the current legal owner is.

As kingstreet posts the old deeds/documents can still have value re other matters such as historical details and boundary information. And we have a blog article that provides some additional information on the subject of deeds.

If you bought the property after 1990 then it will be registered but you can check the trigger date for compulsory registration in your area in section 8 of our Practice Guide 1

If it is registered you can also view/download a copy of the register and title plan online but do read the guidance and view the examples before buying anything. A copy of the register for example costs £3