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Original poster

Paying off mortgage - Deeds

18 replies

QuickityQuackity · 09/10/2021 08:09

We are in the lucky position of being able to pay off the mortgage. But I remember reading/hearing that you shouldn't pay off the last £50 (or something) as then the mortgage company would keep the deeds in the safe. Or some guff like that.

Is this really still the case? Everything is electronic now? Do I need to withhold the last bit - or just pay it all off? Are there any physical "deeds" anymore that we need to keep safe?

Thank you

OP posts:
changeyourname11111 · 09/10/2021 08:26

My mortgage is paid off and I have no deeds. My solicitor seemed to think the bank didn’t have them either as I asked about a paper document.

I wouldn’t want to leave a portion unpaid though, in your position.

BigSandyBalls2015 · 09/10/2021 08:33

All online I think. You can pay to get a copy.

MinnieMountain · 09/10/2021 08:47

Unless you bought in Norfolk or Cambridgeshire in the early 80’s it will all be electronic now.

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Ellmau · 09/10/2021 19:15

I just paid off mine and they said they would send my something in the post. It may just be the registration certificate though.

TheChild · 09/10/2021 19:23

It would depend on whether your mortgage company hold you deeds or not. If you took the nortgage out with your current provider after 2012 (depending on where in the UK you are) then the deeds are stored electronically with the land registry.

In regards to a frozen mortgage, which is what it would be if you kept a small balance for the bank to hold the deeds, you would need to check to see if your mortgage provider offer that. The company I work for used to offer to freeze the mortgage once upon a time however we don't offer that now, if you paid off a lump sum of the mortgage and left a small remaining balance we would recalculate your monthly payments so your mortgage would still be paid at the end of it's term and if we did hold the deeds they would be sent back to you. It would be worth calling your provider to see if they DO hold the deeds and if they do, if they offer frozen mortgages.

Chasingsquirrels · 09/10/2021 19:28

We paid off ours in 2008 (brought in 2001) and the building society sent the paper deeds, but I presume it is also all held electronically at the land registry.

Idontlike · 09/10/2021 19:31

They gave us our deeds when we bought this house a few years ago, we still have 17 years left on the mortgage but they said they are electronic now.

TinaWeymouthsBass · 09/10/2021 19:41

The deeds are all held electronically at the land registry.

Bobsyer · 09/10/2021 20:20

Yep you’re unlikely to get paper deeds nowadays.

The £50 thing is so that you don’t have to pay an early repayment fee if you’re still in a fixed rate or something. Really not worth the hassle if it’s only a £50 balance IMO!

JohnRokesmith · 09/10/2021 21:48

Deeds are the documents which record ownership of unregistered property. If you have a property that has been bought or sold anywhere since 1993 (when compulsory registration was brought in for England and Wales), ownership of your property will be recorded on the Land Registry's title register rather than on deeds.

The point about a mortgagee "keeping the deeds" is that is is very difficult for a fraud to occur on a property with a charge (i.e. mortgage); it's not so much about the physical location of "the deeds", more that the controls that a mortgagee has on their charges prevents illicit activity.

There are, of course, easier ways of protecting yourself nowadays; if you want to protect a property from fraud, you can set up an alert with the Land Registry's property alert system.

mdh2020 · 09/10/2021 22:04

When we paid off our mortgage we were given the option to pay a notional sum so that they held the deeds safely for us.

whatsthestory123 · 09/10/2021 22:08

ive got my deed's now huge pole of papers and quite interesting to read but was told like others is all electronic now but feel's nice to have them even though i dont really need them

RustyBear · 09/10/2021 22:11

When my MIL sold her house in 2008, she was given all the deeds as they were no longer required to be passed on. It was very interesting, as the earliest one dated from 1798, and they showed the history of the house for around 200 years. We took scans of them to keep and gave the original documents to the local archives.

Menofsteel · 09/10/2021 22:40

Nah, we have our deeds and they’re actually fun. Lots of info on them and no risk if we lose them as everyone who matters knows it’s our house 🤷‍♀️

DramaAlpaca · 09/10/2021 22:44

A few weeks after we paid ours off last year we got a big, fat parcel from the bank containing our deeds. We're in Ireland and they aren't electronic here. We need to find safe storage for them really.

StCharlotte · 09/10/2021 23:10

We paid off our mortgage a few years ago and just received an Office Copy of the title. The bank (Woolwich then Barclays) had actually destroyed them and I'm still bloody livid about it.

Original poster
QuickityQuackity · 11/10/2021 18:53

Thank you everyone. Had a dig through as I remember a big wodge of old paper when we bought back in 2012 and yes - I have the old deeds...all the old stuff up to 1960 when it had last changed hands before us. yes, there was a lot of 60s and 70s horrors to renovate

Very interesting to read through.

We will get a £275 charge from Barclays for "admin" for paying it off. Bastards!

OP posts:
Lulu1919 · 11/10/2021 18:55

We paid ours off....the deeds are upstairs in the same place as all our other important paperwork

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