Fireproof document storage

[Rolyata]

At last we've finally paid off our mortgage and have been sent a huge bundle of deeds and papers relating to the house.

My first thought was to get a fireproof document storage box to keep them in, but some of the papers are too long ( 360mm ) to fit in any of the boxes that I've seen and it isn't very practical to fold up the bundles of paper to fit them in a smaller box.

The house is registered with the Land Registry, so it's not a catastrophic loss if the papers do get burnt, but I'd rather keep them as safe as is practicable.

The mortgage was with a bank and they don't offer a scheme to retain the papers if a nominal outstanding balance is left unpaid. Instead they want full commercial rates for document storage. They offer no alternative.

So what clever ideas have any of you come up with to solve this problem ?

I can't find any small fire-proof boxes that are big enough to take the deeds, but a safe that's big enough is absurdly huge.

I know where to get a metal deeds storage box of just the right size, but it isn't fire proof. Is there any way of adapting one of those to be a suitable solution ? It looks as though the fire-proofing is mostly a concrete layer anyway. Perhaps somebody has done it themselves ?

[Cicero]

You could ask the solicitor who's keeping your Will if he can store them.

Cic.

[Peter Stockdale]

He will possibly store them in a bank vault ! Bit senseless really.

[Peter Parry]

Someone around here I know rents many local authority garages (the sort found in rows behind 1970's type developments) with up and over doors. He uses them to store documents from solicitors (and yes - they do know where the stuff is being stored) so "secure storage" when applied to solicitors may need to be interpreted imaginatively.

[<me9]

Check with the land registry. Registered properties (compulsory for some years) are fully electronic now. Deeds are no longer needed (but are nice for historic purposes).

[Dave Fawthrop]

| At last we've finally paid off our mortgage and have been sent a huge | bundle of deeds and papers relating to the house.

I am with the Halifax, and they *lend* me GBP 125, charging me no interest for the privilege of keeping my deeds in their store. (A cunning plan to ensure that I borrow money off them if I ever need any.) That is what I call a deal.

[Cicero]

a bank for storage without passing on the charge to me. But if he does store them in a bank that's probably as secure as anywhere else so I'm quite happy with the situation.

I wouldn't be very happy with the security of a LA garage but I guess that the local solicitors use this facility for the less important stuff.

Cic.

[John Cartmell]

Same deal here - except that it took them so long to pay me the balance of what they owed me that they easily made up the cost of their generosity in interest + a massive extra profit.

[meow2222]

Fireproof document safes do not exist. Fire resistant ones do, but they only resist for so long. Expect half an hour or an hour.

Theyre made with 3 layers:

inner metal container outer metal container something insulating between the 2.

Air insulation alone will keep documents alive for a limited time, so simply placing them in a biscuit tin inside your filing cabinet would give them some protection. If making something I'd probably go with foamed concrete for the insulation, ie breeze blocks.

Note fire resistant safes are typically made to look like security safes to increase sales, but do not IRL provide much security.

NT

[Ian Stirling]

I'd go with a sealed container, down at the bottom of an ocean. That's pretty fireproof.

[Cicero]

============= Unless it lands near a volcanic vent.

Cic.

[Ian Stirling]

Lava isn't fire.

[Andy Dingley]

I've never seen a (modern) firesafe with a mere "insulator" between the two layers. Instead they use a plaster mix which can actually absorb heat (it goes to separate off the water from the previously hydrated plaster). For typical fire exposure durations, this gives better protection than a simple insulator. OTOH, the plaster also releases generous quantities of steam, so the _inner_ box should be vapour resistant too.

One of the simplest and cheapest fire safes around is simply to obtain a large commercial safe (cheap S/H if you can move it), then to line the inside with around four layers of plasterboard, with overlapping joints. As four layer plasterboard is pretty strong, then you can make these into removable inner drawers. Documents inside are stored in tinplate biscuit tins.