Title Deed to Home, No record with bank or solicitor ?

JoeRog

Hi everyone, I hope someone maybe able to offer some advice? My in laws are in a stressful predicament and don't know were to turn next.They have asked for the deeds to their home, they bought in 1967 and mortgage paid off years ago.

After a recent request of deeds to their home, they have received a letter from a solicitor firm saying they had taken over this company and said they were unable to locate any deeds electronically/paper files under their name?. That when they had taken over their old solicitors company and all files would have been transferred to them.

My in laws then contacted the building society that they had paid all their mortgage payments into, the building society says they cannot locate any record of them making mortgage payment, hence no record of a mortgage??

This is all very peculiar, and of course causing a lot of stress to them,

They don't know where to turn to or why this has come to be this way, I said I would ask for advice for them on the forum. Any advice most appreciated.

Thanks Joe.

Alter_ego

If the place is registered paper deeds have not been used for many years. Look on Land registry.

xylophone

The building society would have held the deeds as security and released them (after certain formalities) when the mortgage loan was repaid in full.

Your PILs may well have lodged the deeds with their solicitor.

Unfortunately it is not unknown for documents to go missing.

They should check the Land Registry.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/first-registration-of-title-where-deeds-have-been-lost-or-destroyed/practice-guide-2-first-registration-of-title-if-deeds-are-lost-or-destroyed

JoeRog

I believe they had tried land registry search, and the response from the search was 'Sorry, there is no price paid/value stated information available for this property'.

The fact that the building society also had no records of their mortgage payments seems strange to. At least they could maybe prove they had been and had paid off the mortgage.

Alter_ego

JoeRog wrote: »

I believe they had tried the search, and the response from the search was 'Sorry, there is no price paid/value stated information available for this property'.

That's not a surprise, Price/value has only been public since 2000.
Searching the land registry will find the registration details.
Paper deeds are nothing more than keepsakes nowadays
What do they actually want?

JoeRog

They are considering putting their home in a trust, beginning the process they have been told will need to provide evidence of deeds.Hence the current issue they have not being able to obtain them.

Alter_ego

JoeRog wrote: »

They are considering putting their home in a trust, beginning the process have been told will need to provide evidence of deeds.Hence the current issue they have not being able to obtain them.

Have they checked with the Land Registry?

JoeRog

I would expect they may have checked land registry, will check with them.

G_M

If they purchased in 1967 it is likely that pre-dated compulsory registraton with the Land Registry, so they are dependant on the paper deeds for proof of ownership.

But worth checking here just in case:
http://eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/www/wps/portal/!ut/p/b1/04_Sj9CPykssy0xPLMnMz0vMAfGjzOKNjSxMDA1NjDwsjM3MDTxN3dyNDUNMjQ1MjPWDU_P0C7IdFQG9k5Tz/

Which Building Society was it?
Do they know the mortgage reference number?
Has the BS been taken over by another, or by a bank?
have they got any paperwork from the BS? Not even the mortgage redemption statement proving the mortgage was oaid off (surely they kept that.....)?

But as said above, when the mortgage was redeemed, the BS would have returned the paper deeds to the borrower/owner, or possibly (less likely) to their solicitor.

the owner may have stashed them in the attic. Or lodged them with their solicitor. Or thrown them away.......

Since the solicitors has been taken over, and the new firm has already searched, there seems little optimism there.

The last resort then is to register the property with the Land Registry in their name, as a 1st registration with Deeds lost, as Xylophone suggests above:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/first-registration-of-title-where-deeds-have-been-lost-or-destroyed/practice-guide-2-first-registration-of-title-if-deeds-are-lost-or-destroyed

davidmcn

JoeRog wrote: »

They are considering putting their home in a trust, beginning the process they have been told will need to provide evidence of deeds.Hence the current issue they have not being able to obtain them.

Are they getting legal advice about the trust? If so then their solicitor can sort out any "missing" deeds.

Waterlily24

G_M wrote: »

If they purchased in 1967 it is likely that pre-dated compulsory registraton with the Land Registry, so they are dependant on the paper deeds for proof of ownership.

But worth checking here just in case:
http://eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/www/wps/portal/!ut/p/b1/04_Sj9CPykssy0xPLMnMz0vMAfGjzOKNjSxMDA1NjDwsjM3MDTxN3dyNDUNMjQ1MjPWDU_P0C7IdFQG9k5Tz/

Which Building Society was it?
Do they know the mortgage reference number?
Has the BS been taken over by another, or by a bank?
have they got any paperwork from the BS? Not even the mortgage redemption statement proving the mortgage was oaid off (surely they kept that.....)?

But as said above, when the mortgage was redeemed, the BS would have returned the paper deeds to the borrower/owner, or possibly (less likely) to their solicitor.

the owner may have stashed them in the attic. Or lodged them with their solicitor. Or thrown them away.......

Since the solicitors has been taken over, and the new firm has already searched, there seems little optimism there.

The last resort then is to register the property with the Land Registry in their name, as a 1st registration with Deeds lost, as Xylophone suggests above:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/first-registration-of-title-where-deeds-have-been-lost-or-destroyed/practice-guide-2-first-registration-of-title-if-deeds-are-lost-or-destroyed

Years ago the deeds were always sent to the solicitor dealing with the redemption. This is going back a long way though. I worked for the Abbey National Building Society (as it was then) and dealt with the redemptions. The solicitors had to be on their panel.