Slightly OT: Deeds

[andrewpreece]

I retreived my house deeds from the solicitor who handled the purchase of my house for me a little while ago, and noted rather belatedly that they are photocopies. The originals appear to have wax seals and copperplate writing and ribbons etc. I own the house outright, no mortgage, though there is a complicated story about the way I came to buy it.

My question is, are the photocopies enough for peace of mind, or should I be concerning myself with the whereabouts of the originals. To answer an obvious question, the photocopies were all my solicitor got I believe, as the sale was from the insolvency service to me, the insolvency service nabbed my father's half of the house in a bankruptcy case, and I bought it back. And no, I can't ask my father either.

Just trying to figure out whether a problem exists or whether originals are lodged at some location like the land registry etc etc.

Andy.

[Al Reynolds]

As of the recent amendments to the land registration laws (can't remember which Act ust now), the first port of call when establishing ownership is now the Land Registry. If they don't know who owns it then the deeds come into play. People still need to keep the deeds, in case of a query over the data held by the LR about covenants etc.

You can check the record online for £2:

As long as you are down as the registered owner and no-one else is shown as having an interest in the property, I wouldn't worry. The deeds may well be with the insolvency service, but they may only have had photocopies as well.

HTH, Al

[Huge]

We recently paid off our mortgage, and received a registered copy of the Land Registry entry. Although it was in a nice folder, it was just that; a copy.

[andrewpreece]

Thanks folks, I had it in mind that possession of the deeds by a third party could cause unforeseen problems if they were malevolent enough ( I've heard about and suffered too many crap things from people in my life to trust chance ). You've set my mind at peace anyway, it appears that owning the original deeds is not 9/10 of the law!

Andy.

[Christian McArdle]

The real deeds, particularly old Victorian ones with copperplate writing, wax seals and covenants about use as a "house of ill repute" are normally stolen by the solicitors and sold on eBay to supplement their hand to mouth existence from the conveyancing fees.

Deeds are pretty much an irrelevance nowadays, it's all on computer at the Land Registry.

Christian.

[bruce_phipps]

purchase of my

AFAIK, the building society/mortgage lender retains the deeds until you pay off your mortgage. Once you have paid off the mortgage, the building soc. then might offer to store them for you for a fee.

Its all electronic nowadays, anyway. I'm buying a house at the moment and AFAIK a lot of the searches can be done via the interweb thingy. Bruce

[Owain]

"Christian McArdle" wrote | Deeds are pretty much an irrelevance nowadays, it's all on computer | at the Land Registry.

Hopefully not in an Access database :-)

Owain

[Bob Eager]

The term 'Access database' is an oxymoron...

[Al Reynolds]

To be fair to the Land Registry, their online facility is the only government site that seems well organised and managed. Perhaps because neither EDS nor Capita are running it?

Al

[Christian McArdle]

Yes, it's about 0.001/10 of the law! (Provided land is registered).

Christian.