Cheap & Safe place to keep house deeds?

Paulina_Fortune

Hi,

I'm very close to finishing off my mortgage (hooray!!!).

My building society would charge over £200 a year to keep the deeds in storage and I'm a bit reluctant to keep them in the house. Does anyone know of any cheaper alternatives?

Thanks.

Froggitt

Yup - keep an outstanding balance of £1.00 on your mortgage and they'll continue to look after them for free. Might cost you 5p or 6p a year in interest, but in comparison is a bargain.

lisyloo

If you have a solicitor then they will normally keep them for free.
However if you can keep a small balance then it will avoid paying for the fees at the end as well.

Check with your lender what the minimum is.
Unfortunately some have clsoed this loophole and specify a minimum e.g. £1000.

narrowback

What would I need to ask them if I called the bank? Just what is the minimum o/s balance you can have? In July my 3 year deal with the Cheshire comes to an end and I was planning on paying off the £20,000 mortgage. Would they not refuse to accept a payment of £19,000+ if they new that my intention was to save on fees and any solicitors costs incurred for holding the deeds?
Don't want to put my foot in it by asking the wrong questions.
Any advise appreciated.
Cheers

margaretclare

You don't need the deeds. When we did our equity release and change of ownership 2 years ago we were offered the deeds to keep, otherwise they'd have been sent to the County Record Office. The solicitors don't have room to store them all, and they're irrelevant now anyway because title to the property is stored electronically at the Land Registry.

They're fascinating historical documents and we'd like ours to stay with the house, but if not, we've left instructions for our heirs and successors to send them to the County Record Office if the next owners don't want them.

Aunty Margaret