Where do you store the title deeds of your home?

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Tintagel

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Our mortgage has been cleared for many years. The title deeds to our home just sit on a shelf in a press, along with our will etc.

I think that these items need to be better secured.

Just wondering what you do with your title deeds?

We would prefer to keep them at home rather than getting them lost in a solicitor's office or bank vault.

Any recommendations for a fireproof safe?

One of our concerns in getting a safe is that in the event of a burglary, the thieves will think that the safe might contain cash/jewellery rather than paper items.
 
Tintagel said:
We would prefer to keep them at home rather than getting them lost in a solicitor's office or bank vault.
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Particularly if a number of certified true copies are kept in different locations, there should be no problem with them being kept in in a solicitor's office or bank vault.

Your concerns about a safe in your home are well founded.
 
The handiest and cheapest way to store them is to keep them with your bank. But once you take possession of them, they won't take them back (which is fair enough).

You can pay for someone to store them. Most people use their solicitor and they are kept alongside a copy of the will.

Or you can DIY it. You should keep them in a fire proof safe. Yes, you run the risk of a burglar running off with it but the safe should be secured.
 
Steven Barrett said:
Yes, you run the risk of a burglar running off with it
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Or flooding, or losing the key, or dementia, or a careless family member taking it out.

There are so many things that can go wrong with storing unique documents in a private residence.

I would leave it to a professional. You also have legal recourse if they mess up.
 
T McGibney said:
Particularly if a number of certified true copies are kept in different locations, there should be no problem with them being kept in in a solicitor's office or bank vault.
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Is there somewhere where I can get certified true copies made and is this expensive?

I didn't think that banks were taking anything for safe keeping anymore? I also understand that they only take an "envelope" or "box" but do not take responsibility for the contents.

Do solicitors have facilities to store multiple deeds belonging to customers safely and securely? Any idea how much they charge?
 
Tintagel said:
Is there somewhere where I can get certified true copies made and is this expensive?
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A solicitor, accountant or any other professional should be able to oblige. I can't imagine it would be in any way expensive.


Tintagel said:
Do solicitors have facilities to store multiple deeds belonging to customers safely and securely?
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I assume they must do. The days of keeping highly sensitive documents in cupboards presumably went out with the flood.
Tintagel said:
Any idea how much they charge?
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No, sorry.
 
Steven Barrett said:
The handiest and cheapest way to store them is to keep them with your bank. But once you take possession of them, they won't take them back (which is fair enough).

You can pay for someone to store them. Most people use their solicitor and they are kept alongside a copy of the will.

Or you can DIY it. You should keep them in a fire proof safe. Yes, you run the risk of a burglar running off with it but the safe should be secured.
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I wouldn't keep anything in the bank! The bank lost family jewellery in their own vaults....I knew it was there, applied several times to retrieve it to be told they didn't have any record of it and I must be mistaken. Luckily a friend was working in the bank and I asked them to look into it...they found the jewellery and returned it to me. True story. What's even more disturbing is the friend said there is a heap of stuff unclaimed valuable stuff in the bank with no records attached to it.
 
Silvius said:
I wouldn't keep anything in the bank! The bank lost family jewellery in their own vaults....I knew it was there, applied several times to retrieve it to be told they didn't have any record of it and I must be mistaken. Luckily a friend was working in the bank and I asked them to look into it...they found the jewellery and returned it to me. True story. What's even more disturbing is the friend said there is a heap of stuff unclaimed valuable stuff in the bank with no records attached to it.
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I don't know why a bank would be minding jewelry. Sounds like something from a heist movie.

They hold onto the deeds for most people's homes for decades as it is. All you are doing is leaving it there.
 
I used to work in a branch of a bank that had an underground river. When it rained heavy the vaults used to flood. One official made a small fortune in overtime coming in the night before the heavy rains to move everything off the floors on to higher shelves. Lots of damp and mouldy documents. Not somewhere I would want to keep my papers.
 
Steven Barrett said:
I don't know why a bank would be minding jewelry. Sounds like something from a heist movie.

They hold onto the deeds for most people's homes for decades as it is. All you are doing is leaving it there.
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Banks minded items for safekeeping for years, could be anything once it was in a sealed package, a service they offered at the time! I'm sure many were jewellery, I know after my mother died her jewellery was in AIB for years for safe keeping, went in with my dad to deposit it originally and collected and redeposited it many times during 80s/90s as required. They eventually contacted us to say they were no longer providing the service but can't remember when.
 
If a person reads the safekeeping receipt that they got from the bank.....it does not say jewellery, or title deeds, or painting......it just says,"brown envelope", "box". That is all that they are taking from you for safekeeping.
 
I’ve never seen title deeds or what they contain but surely if it’s a document can’t this be replaced with a digital register these days?
 
Monbretia said:
Banks minded items for safekeeping for years, could be anything once it was in a sealed package, a service they offered at the time! I'm sure many were jewellery, I know after my mother died her jewellery was in AIB for years for safe keeping, went in with my dad to deposit it originally and collected and redeposited it many times during 80s/90s as required. They eventually contacted us to say they were no longer providing the service but can't remember when.
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Exactly, it was very common at that time. People just assumed the bank were actually keeping it safe and keeping records of everything, at least my relatives did. It was also AIB!
 
When we were buying our current house, the sellers Bank lost the deeds! The deeds then had to be recreated. It was a bit of a pain, but not as difficult as you might imagine.
My advice would be to make a digital copy of the deeds and send them to yourself, so that you always have them, even if they are lost etc.
People get very exercised about the safe storage of deeds, but I've yet to read about anyone being kicked out of their house because they lost the deeds!
 
Are there title deeds for houses anymore? I thought that deeds today are folio no's. I own my house outright but have no title deeds as such, maybe my solicitor has but why and who gave them to him/her?
I do know my mum and dad had a long few pages of their deeds with a mention of turbary rights as well. That house was built in the early 1900's and was sold in the last few years. The deeds papers were handed over at point of sale.
 
Some banks no longer hold deeds or other valuables for customers. PTSB stopped doing this a few years back and I had to collect my deeds from them (the mortgage was originally with EBS a long time back but I was a customer of PTSB and they used to offer safe storage for free to customers). I'm not going to say where they are now to avoid embarrassment in this thread... :eek:

I thought that for properties that were fully moved over from Land Registry/Registry of Deeds to the newer Property Registration Authority, it was less important to keep the original deeds safe as they could be much more easily replaced? (Doesn't help me as far as I know though :confused: ).
 
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