How important are bank receipts for document safe keeping?

My elderly relative is in a nursing home and we asked the relevant local bank branch about deeds for the person's house as our relative told us they lodged them there for safe-keeping. We thought we needed them for the Fair Deal application but we used other documents to show ownership.

Anyway, the bank said they had no record of any documents lodged from that person. That was 6 months ago.

Fast forward to now. Receipts were found in the house from the bank, detailing will and deeds lodged to bank for safe-keeping, quite specific receipts. There are no serial numbers on the receipts which are signed and dated by someone at the bank and they don't have any branch ID or stamp on them. Obviously this will be queried with the bank again. The items were lodged there about 15 years ago. Any thoughts?

It would be unusual for the receipt not to carry the name of the Branch. In the past in the bank where i worked such items were recorded in a loose leaf ledger and when withdrawn the person signed the ledger sheet which was taken out and put into a what we called a second stage ledger. Did the bank person physically check that the ittems were not held though this may be difficult to do as i gather the items are no longer held in alpabetical order.

dewdrop said:

It would be unusual for the receipt not to carry the name of the Branch. In the past in the bank where i worked such items were recorded in a loose leaf ledger and when withdrawn the person signed the ledger sheet which was taken out and put into a what we called a second stage ledger. Did the bank person physically check that the ittems were not held though this may be difficult to do as i gather the items are no longer held in alpabetical order.

Click to expand...

I don't know if a physical search was done. The safe-keeping of the deeds was queried at the customer service desk in the branch and followed up by a phone call to that person in the branch who said nothing held here for "A. Murphy". We will bring the receipts to the branch and query it again, but closer relatives will probably only do this when the person has died, whereas I would be inclined to sort it out sooner than later.

Is this the only will or has a newer will been made?

Otherwise the title may or may not be important depending on what kind of title- land registry or registry of deeds.

It is also possible that during the 15 years the title deeds were withdrawn again so this is not conclusive.

Vanilla said:

Is this the only will or has a newer will been made?

Otherwise the title may or may not be important depending on what kind of title- land registry or registry of deeds.

It is also possible that during the 15 years the title deeds were withdrawn again so this is not conclusive.

Click to expand...

It would be the only will. Person is alive and can make a new one if wishes anyway. Person was clear that the deeds were in the relevant bank branch and wouldn't have taken them back. The issue here is that the bank has lost/mislaid/destroyed them somehow. Best thing to do is to drop into the bank with the receipts presumably, to query it again.

It has been known that items in safekeeping could not be located for whatever reason. When speaking to the bank person ask them have they checked records of items withdrawn just in case this did happen.

The will is really important and I would suggest that your relative should make a new will immediately.

In relation to the title, almost all title can be reconstructed albeit with some expense. However if the bank has lost them, the bank must pay for replacement.

I've had experience of this happening in the past and the bank has paid up. I would also suggest that the bank should pay the legal fee for the will ( but don't wait for them to pay to get it done)- which would be quite a bit cheaper for them than a lawsuit by a beneficiary should your relative die and the will not be found!

Approximately 10-12 years ago, the Banks adopted the role of returning deeds and documents back to customers as this type of service was ceased by all Banks in Ireland. Is there any chance that the papers in question were returned to the customer and same might have been placed with a solicitor. As others have stated this is important so a check with the person's solicitors or accountants might prove a result.

Ten years ago, I was looking for the deeds to my parents' house which had been lodged with a branch of their bank. However, that branch had been closed and a large box containing documents was found in a near branch of the same bank. After a rummage through the contents, the deeds were found.

I wasn't very impressed with the level of administration taken by the bank in looking after the deeds and I don't presume it has changed much since!