# Mortgage Paid Off - What to do with Title Deeds



## Homer (21 Apr 2010)

Having recently made the final payment on our mortgage, the title deeds to our family home are now available for collection from our bank branch.  

Should we just leave them there for safekeeping or should we leave them with our solicitor?  What would happen if we brought them home and they were lost in a fire or some other way?  Can duplicate deeds be issued in such circumstances and is it difficult/costly to obtain same?

Regards
Homer


----------



## mf1 (21 Apr 2010)

Title Deeds are valuable documents. 

Most lenders do not want to hold them for safekeeping - obviously, if they were lost while with the lender and not held as security, the property owner would want to hold the lender responsible. 

Equally, most solicitors do not want to hold title deeds - for precisely the same reason. As a practising solicitor, I do hold some title deeds for some of my more elderly clients - but this is more a gesture of good will towards loyal clients. As the old concept of client loyalty has waned, I will not accept the responsibility of holding deeds for clients who are likely to leave at the drop of a hat. Of course, all clients are entitled to leave - but, equally, cake and eat it? 

If you take them home and they are destroyed, you may or may not be able to reconstitute the title. Much depends on what type of title you have. 

If you have a relationship with a solicitor, they would very likely be willing to inspect your deeds and advise on what is crucial and what is not. The only title I can think of that would be really simple to reconstitute would be a Land Registry title of a house built before planning laws that had no works done to it and where there were no deaths on title.  

I generally advise clients to copy important parts of their title and keep both sets safe in different environs. 

Alternatively, a company called Filestore will store Deeds - if you google them you will get info on them. There is a cost factor involved.

mf


----------



## meadow (22 Apr 2010)

you could also get a fireproof chest and store them in your attic/under your stairs.

Amazon sell one thats quite good value at the moment.

I got one of these last week and plan storing my deeds as well as other important documents in it.


----------



## gareth1214 (26 Apr 2010)

My bank gave me the option of keeping a nominal amount outstanding on my mortgage (£1). This allowed the bank to retain the deeds FOC, saving the cost of renting a deed box from them or another bank. 

It would also simplify the process of releasing equity from the house if I wanted to, as the mortgage account is still active, albeit I dont need to make anymore repayments.


----------



## theGraduate (26 Apr 2010)

gareth1214 said:


> My bank gave me the option of keeping a nominal amount outstanding on my mortgage (£1). This allowed the bank to retain the deeds FOC, saving the cost of renting a deed box from them or another bank.
> 
> It would also simplify the process of releasing equity from the house if I wanted to, as the mortgage account is still active, albeit I dont need to make anymore repayments.



That was really nice of them. What's the catch? 

Will they get to use the asset backing the 1 euro mortgage for their evil market deeds like buying money or boosting ratios?


----------



## fizzelina (26 Apr 2010)

gareth1214 said:


> My bank gave me the option of keeping a nominal amount outstanding on my mortgage (£1). This allowed the bank to retain the deeds FOC, saving the cost of renting a deed box from them or another bank.


 You mention £1 so I presume it was an English bank??


----------



## JohnJay (26 Apr 2010)

I dont think I would trust a bank with anything of any value these days. The fireproof safe in the attic would be a better option! One of the large banks has recently "lost" my brothers deeds and are now in the process of getting new ones. He is not too bad though as it is a fairly new house (10 years old) so they are easy enough to replace


----------



## niceoneted (26 Apr 2010)

We were just talking about this at work last night. Two of my colleagues had serious problems getting their deeds when they cleared their mortgages.


----------

