Title Deeds - where are they?

No doubt they will claim there's no room to store them, especially when they are digitised.
It's like old books in libraries. They get chucked.

Sad but true Gramaretto. However that’s in England and Wales - I think you’re in Scotland?

I demand a public enquiry!!
I am horrified to hear that public bodies are so cavalier about precious documents.
How can they destroy title deeds without at least giving the landowner some say in what happens to them.
I will be sad and furious in equal measure if it turns out the original deeds have been destroyed.

I have been involve in a couple of charities that owned property going back hundreds of years. In both cases, the deeds were held, at no charge, by local solicitors.
In both cases, we did a voluntary registration with LR, as it can help around planning permission, and in one case, a boundary dispute. In both cases, the LR returned the documents to the solicitors - quite unnecessary (I suggested the County archives. M0nica) but there was a strong sense of wanting to keep the status quo.

The LR used to hold pre-registration deeds which were relevant to the title, containing covenants and so forth. Gradually all were digitised and the originals destroyed.

Germanshepherdsmum

Lenders didn’t destroy deeds, the Land Registry did.

How? The Land Registry don't hold deeds, not to any of my properties anyway, why would they? I've had paper deeds returned to me from a mortgage lender within the last 18 months or so when the mortgage was paid off. The label on the documents shows that the lender had been storing them securely with Iron Mountain, a well known document secure storage facility.

Our deeds, such as they are, were returned to us when we repaid our mortgage. The Land Registery, never got their stickylittle hands on them

My DS worked for a firm of solicitors for a while and was given the task of clearing out and destroying many old records. Manyof the records contained beautiful hand drawn and water colour painted plans and maps. She rescued as many of the maps as possible, and was allowed to keep them!! i have a couple hanging on a wall.

This was in the 1970s. By the 1980s I knew better and would hve recommended that she speak to the County Archivist about placing these records in the County Record Office. The information in them was 50 years old or more, and the company could always have put an embargo on their release for public access if they had any confidentiality concerns.

Mortgage lender will have details and land registry

In Scotland there is the law of the Common Good, an ancient royal charter whereby land was given to Burghs to be used for the good of everyone.
Leap forward 1000years and much of this land has been grabbed used by councils to make money. Land has been built on and sold. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Good_Fund

That's criminal GSM

Lenders didn’t destroy deeds, the Land Registry did.

We repaid our mortgage in the 90s (bar a nominal amount, so the Building Society would store the deeds). Last year, we decided to clear this amount (in order to make things easy for our children when they inherit) and the Building Society (the Halifax) still had our deeds and handed them over; so not all lenders are destroying deeds of registered properties.

One of my duties in my job at the Council was to archive all the title deeds of land owned by the Council. Some of the deeds were very old and absolutely fascinating. There is an old RAF base that was owned by the Crown (now a housing estate) and the deed is amazing- hand written on vellum and has a huge seal attached to it, which is stored in a tin to preserve it. I'm a real fan of local history and spent many a happy hour studying the numerous ancient deeds in our possession.

We have the original title deeds for our house - but trying to make sense of the measurements for the land attached to it is interesting to say the least. It's all in 'rods and poles'!

It must be Susie42
What I found was the last sale before 1980, when we bought it, was in 1897! But nothing before then and from photographic and other written evidence, the house was built in 1811.
There's a romantic painting showing the house with a woman in a crinoline walking in the romanticised gardens

We have the original deeds for our house from when the land was first sold sometime in the 19th century when it was an orchard, and our house wasn’t built until 1933. It’s fascinating reading through all the previous owners.

When I first tried to locate the deeds, I tried the solicitor we had back 40 yrs ago, He was no longer but swallowed up by another partnership and yet another.
Covid was blamed for the inability to search their archives.
The Bank which had supplied our mortgage had been taken over and the worst thing was noone seemed to know anything.
I eventually got my new solicitor, who was helping me with my will etc, to help in the search and with a bit of persuasion, they found at least some of the history of the ownership.
I don't think they understood how important it is to me to know which bits of land are mine. In this town there are lots of pieces of land with unknown ownership.

The LR used to issue a paper title certificate back then and they only needed to see the documents relevant to prove title. They didn’t, iirc, keep everything but returned deeds to solicitors after first registration - I may be wrong there as it’s a long time ago! There would also be older deeds no longer of relevance, and after the title was registered the pre-registration deeds were superfluous as anything relevant such as covenants was recorded on the registered title. Solicitors tended to send all the deeds to lenders, superfluous or not. Eventually lenders didn’t want documents sent to them when the title was registered as they took up so much space, just the mortgage deed and evidence of its registration. Solicitors would retain everything or pass irrelevant deeds to clients. It’s sad that the old deeds to many old houses have been lost or destroyed but a lot survive in county record offices, often deposited by solicitors having a clear out long after the client disappeared off the radar. Old deeds may be irrelevant to the title but are of huge historical interest. Well done for tracing your property through manorial records - no easy task.

My house is 1870s and the deeds are really interesting....but entirely worthless .....the house is registered online with land registry

Germanshepherdsmum

Lenders haven’t kept title deeds for years. If you bought your property in 2001 the title will be registered at the Land Registry and doubtless your solicitor has already downloaded the title documents from the LR. Original title deeds sometimes survive but what’s relevant is not the old deeds but the registered title. Old deeds are only of historic interest.

You’re paying your solicitor to help you fill these forms in!

Interesting. We bought in 1994 but still had the deeds returned to us when our mortgage was paid off. Why would the mortgage company have needed them if they were superseded by registration at the Land Registry?

Compulsory registration came in in 1987. The people we purchased from had bought the property in 1984 so ours was probably first registration at the LR. Would that explain the mortgager having the deeds?

It's a crying shame that old deeds were made obsolete . They are so interesting. Mind you, our house was built pre 1700 but abstract of title only goes back to the late 19th C. I could only trace it back further through manorial court records..

Fireproof I hope.

In a locked cupboard with a few other documents.

It's a bit different in Scotland ofcourse it is! .
The Register of Sassines goes back to Medieval times but some of the deeds are so ancient and obscure, it's hard to trace ownership. They are in the process of being digitised but there's a long way to go.
A book Who owns Scotland by Andy Whiteman and a TV documentary explains it all.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00111y7
My house is at least 200 years old and I would love to know more about its early history.

Same with deeds held by the LR - it’s a shame but the cost of storage is prohibitive.

Not always easy to get title deeds
Bought a house in Cheshire 1982 saw all the deeds they were lent to us by building society as there was boundary disputes once settled the deed returned to building society
When mortgage paid up we requested their return. Only to be told they had been destroyed as they were no longer needed for property transactions such a shame as they were fascinating

My title deeds were returned to me from building society when mortgage was paid off. All neatly bound in a folder with all original plans for house.