Can I have my deeds?
A familiar request from Clients following completion of the purchase of a house or land - but what exactly are "title deeds".
In years gone by the only way of proving that you owned a piece of land and the buildings on it was to produce "the deeds". They were a collection of papers showing your ownership, and could go back a century or more, but the important thing was to have a document (called "a Conveyance") describing the property and with your name on it as the owner. Rather than proving title in this way, as long ago as 1862 the government of the day introduced "Land Registration", and over the years this has become the most common way of proving ownership. By producing the documents of title to the Land Registry it has been possible to secure registration so that the government guarantees your ownership, and loss of the title deeds is no longer a worry.
Until 2003 the Land Registry issued a "Land Certificate" containing details of the title, the owner's name and address, and a plan of the property, based on the ordnance map. With the introduction of computerisation of the Register several years ago, the government felt in its wisdom that such information could be held electronically, and there was no need to issue a paper Land Certificate. Instead copies can be obtained from the Land Registry, subject to payment of a small fee, at any time. At the same time the Register has been made public so anyone can look at the ownership of any property that is registered, even to check the price paid for it, and whether there is a mortgage.
So deeds as such no longer exist although there are other documents that need to be kept such as Leases, Planning and Building Regulation approvals, and guarantees for timber preservation, double-glazing etc.
The Land Register system, and computerisation is to pave the way to "electronic conveyancing" dispensing with the paper-based procedure. This is however some way off, and the Land Registries are for the moment concentrating on getting all unregistered land put onto the Register.
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