House deeds - where?

P

PMR

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Where do people generally store their house deeds for safe keeping?

A relative recently passed away and the papers are not in the house, with a relative, at the bank, or with her solicitor (unless she had another solicitor that we are not aware of).

Is there anywhere else I can try??
 
Common options are usually the (former) lender, solicitor, bank safety deposit facility. I keep mine in the latter (no charge).
 
Are you sure there are title deeds? Sometimes deeds just havent issued, and there is no difficulty with this. Have you consulted a solicitor?
 
Vanilla said:
Are you sure there are title deeds? Sometimes deeds just havent issued, and there is no difficulty with this. Have you consulted a solicitor?
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Yes, there are deeds alright and I had reason to believe that her solicitor had them but apparently not. I called BOI this afternoon as she had her mortgage with them, she cleared it many years ago but they are going to check if they are holding the deeds and get back to me. Please let it be so :)
 
If they have definitely issued and they are not with the possessions or in a safety deposit box etc they should be with the Land Registry, the solicitor or the lender. If not with the mortgage providers directly check or ask them to check with the branch she used.
 
The Land Registry will not hold original deeds once everthing is registered, as they would be sent back to who ever lodged them for registration. Depending on where the property in question is they would either have been registered in the Land Registry or Registry of Deeds.

If it's registered in the Land Registry you can get a copy of the folio and if it's registered in the Registry of Deeds you can get a copy of the memorial which is a shortened version of the orginal deed. Both of these places are public offices so you can call in with as much information as you can get i.e. names on deeds, address of property when approx. it was registered and they will make a search to see if they can locate the information for you

Good Luck
 
The Land Registry will not hold original deeds once everthing is registered, as they would be sent back to who ever lodged them for registration.
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Not true. Although these days the Land Registry won't reissue an original land certificate anyway, even years ago they were sometimes retained in the Central Office.

Depending on where the property in question is they would either have been registered in the Land Registry or Registry of Deeds.
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Should have been, certainly. Would have been? Not necessarily.

If it's registered in the Land Registry you can get a copy of the folio and if it's registered in the Registry of Deeds you can get a copy of the memorial which is a shortened version of the orginal deed
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Yes, but the OP wants the original title deeds- which means either the original land certificate or the original unregistered deeds. Certified copy memorials or a copy folio where the original land cert has issued won't suffice in the future if a sale or mortgage is required.
 
In the event that the original deeds don't turn up I am pretty sure that there is at least one existing thread that outlines what might be required in order to replace the missing deeds.
 
Reconstitution of title deeds can be time consuming and if Registry of Deeds, expensive.

PMR - was the mortgage fully paid off when your relative passed away?

Contact the lender and ask them to investigate who the original solicitor was at the time. They will have required an undertaking before releasing funds and should be able to start a paper trace.

If the original solicitor is no longer practicing, the Law Society will be able to tell you who the file was passed on to.

If a very long time ago, security could have been taken at source ie the deeds could have been left into the branch, although a solicitor would have been required to register your relative as the registered owner.
 
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