What to do with House Deeds ?

optoutDB

As Executor of Dad's estate I assume I need to see the Deeds (to check the ownership arrangement) and I want to tidy up his affairs. The Deeds are held by a solicitor. 

I also have power of attorney for my Mother who will get Dad's half (will then own the whole house).

I'm hope the Deeds are held gratis, in the hope of picking up future business. But might the estate be hit with a 40years storage charge? 

When I get them back, what do I do with them? Do I get them registered electronically and then just keep them with my Mothers documents. Are the Paper Deeds still important?  (I've never owned property).

Thanks for any info...
 

Keep_pedalling

Paper deeds are only important if the house has not been registered with the land registry. You can check if that is the case on line. 

https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

If it is not registered now might be a good time to do it.

RAS

And just make sure you use the gov.uk and pay £3 if appropriate. If you can't find them, there is no charge.

There are lots of firms who will relieve you of £30+ to make the same Che k.

Keep_pedalling

RAS said:

And just make sure you use the gov.uk and pay £3 if appropriate. If you can't find them, there is no charge.

There are lots of firms who will relieve you of £30+ to make the same Che k.

Just follow the link in my post. 

Mojisola

optoutDB said:

As Executor of Dad's estate I assume I need to see the Deeds (to check the ownership arrangement) and I want to tidy up his affairs. The Deeds are held by a solicitor. 

When I get them back, what do I do with them? Do I get them registered electronically and then just keep them with my Mothers documents. Are the Paper Deeds still important?

Mum and Dad's house wasn't registered and their paper deeds were kept safe by the solicitor.

I used the solicitor to do a voluntary first registration - it's possible to do it yourself but I didn't want a mistake to slow down any future sale.

If you want the paper deeds back, you have to ask for them otherwise the LR destroys them.  I kept them and passed them on to the new owner.

theoretica

Also look out for any other useful documents in the folder with them - I found plans for moving the kitchen in with mine.

Savvy_Sue

theoretica said:

Also look out for any other useful documents in the folder with them - I found plans for moving the kitchen in with mine.

Any files or folders with information relating to when your parents bought the house may be worth a careful check. My parents' house was registered at the Land Registry, but Dad had kept all the documentation from when they moved in, including a paper trail about the status of the area round the back of the house which gave access to the garages. That made answering the conveyancing questions much easier, indeed without them I'd have been completely lost! 

TBagpuss

It's unlikely you would be hit with 40 years worth of storage fees - there may be a one of fee as they will have to verify your D and tat you are entitled to collect them. If the property is not registered and you instruct the same solicitors to deal with first registration then they may well not charge to retrieve the deeds from storage as the ID work will be being done as part of their file opening process. 

optoutDB

Probate has been approved (10weeks), just waiting for the grant to arrive.

My questions are:
What should I be doing with the house documents? 
Can I do it myself  ?
What would a solicitor charge?.
 
I think the outcome I want is that the documents are recorded electronically and they show Mother as the sole owner.

Do paper masters still exist under the electronic recording system? If so, who keeps them?


I could just ask the solicitor but I don't like going in cold to face a salesperson.