solicitor has lost my deed

micky01

Before Christmas, I have pay all the fee to the solcitor to carry out the conveyance . One day, one of the staff in this solicitor firm sent a letter to me asking if the original deed was in our hand. We said no. After a week she asked us to sign a duplicate deed to her. Is this a right way for her to tell us to sign a duplicate copy. I think she has to solve this mistake herself not us. so we do not sign. Can anyone tell me can we registar in Land registry. Would she delay our registration.

micky01

please help to answer me

Jonbvn

Most deeds are kept electronically by the land registry. If you have not paid off your mortgage, it would be unlikely that you would have any original deeds.

feralkitten

If it is the Transfer deed you are talking about, a signed one has to be supplied to the Land Registry. If the original has been lost, a duplicate needs to be signed to replace it. If you have paid all fees, the solicitor already has the payment to go to the Land Registy and would have no reason not to complete the registration. Until the registration is finalised, the previous owner still remains shown on the records. If the Transfer has been lost, there is no other way to finalise matters except with a duplicate.

micky01

thanks to feralkitten

I wonder is it too simple to sign on duplicate. The original deed is lost. We do not know would happen in future. So we do not sign on the duplicate copy since the original deed is executed on the date we sign on it. The solicitor should has a photocopy of the original deed to make it as true certified and go for declaration as well. I am afraid she would delay my registration due to this incident as there is time limit for the registrarion. Can any body please tell me he has signed on the duplicate before and nothing happen in future.

amyparr

Hi go to Citizen's Advice Bureau, they will be able to help. I'm a trainee lawyer but this isn't my area of expertise, and I wouldn't make such a big decision based on advice from this forum, as lovely as everyone is.

Richard_Webster

I wonder is it too simple to sign on duplicate. The original deed is lost. We do not know would happen in future. So we do not sign on the duplicate copy since the original deed is executed on the date we sign on it. The solicitor should has a photocopy of the original deed to make it as true certified and go for declaration as well. I am afraid she would delay my registration due to this incident as there is time limit for the registrarion. Can any body please tell me he has signed on the duplicate before and nothing happen in future.

If they have a certified copy then eventually with a lot of faffing around then they might be able to get that registered, but it would not be straightforward.

Signing a duplicate will not prejudice you in any way. Please trust your solcitors on this. Once the Land Registry have registered it they are not going to register the same document twice. Once the duplicate is registered, if the original comes to light it is of no value and can be destroyed, which is what the Land Registry do with many transfer deeds once they have been registered!

micky01

Thanks to Richard

Now I understand it is the common way in the conveyence process. But it is not the right way in the contract spirit. There is the risk for the client if he /she get back the original deeds unfortunately which is useless and does not match with the one keep by Land registry after he/she pay all his/her mortage to the bank. Besides some photocopies of the original deeds may still not be destroyed. There is a guide line in the Land Registry site for the conveyenceor who has lost the deed for the first registrarion to follow up.