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Original poster

What happens with the house deeds when you pay off your mortgage?

59 replies

cava2nite · 09/05/2024 20:07

We're in a fortunate position to have paid off our Nationwide mortgage today, with the help of an inheritance from my mum who sadly died recently. Does this mean that the house deeds (or whatever the ownership papers are called) will be sent to us? I'm sure I remember reading several years ago that it's best to leave a few pounds owing to the lender, to make sure the deeds continue to be stored safely. However, perhaps things have changed because I saw nothing about it on Nationwide's website during the repayment process.

OP posts:
DragonFly98 · 09/05/2024 20:10

That wouldn't make sense the "few pounds" would just leave you account next time the monthly payment was due.

GiantHornets · 09/05/2024 20:12

Building Society just sent ours back, I can’t even remember where we put them.
Land Registry is all electronic now so the deeds are redundant except for historical interest.

TheFutureMrsWolowitz · 09/05/2024 20:13

I'd ask for them tbh.

I did part of my training contract as a trainee solicitor in a conveyancing firm. This was in 2017 so very recently. Everything is now on Land registry and one of my tasks was to go back through decades of deeds and send them to confidential shredding. Because they had been registered and were 'no longer needed'. I thought it was a tragic loss of history.

If the land is registered you don't need the deeds held securely. Get them back. Do what my parents did and frame them and hang them up. But if they matter to you on a historical basis then get them back. We have ours thankfully because when DH bought the land without a mortgage they were handed over to him. I love looking back at them and seeing the old restricted covenants etc.

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Original poster
cava2nite · 09/05/2024 20:13

GiantHornets · 09/05/2024 20:12

Building Society just sent ours back, I can’t even remember where we put them.
Land Registry is all electronic now so the deeds are redundant except for historical interest.

Good to know! I expect that is why things have changed.

OP posts:
TheFutureMrsWolowitz · 09/05/2024 20:14

Oh- and CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

I hope you have som,ething lovely planned to celebrate!!!

DatingDinosaur · 09/05/2024 20:14

Ask your mortgage provider. A lot of properties details are stored electronically now at the Land Registry so the need for paper deeds and documents is obsolete.

TheCaddieisaBaddie · 09/05/2024 20:15

We paid ours with Nationwide last yr, just got a letter to confirm all done, no deeds were sent back to us.

TonTonMacoute · 09/05/2024 20:16

We were asked if we wanted to have them, which we did!

Jeezitneverends · 09/05/2024 20:17

DragonFly98 · 09/05/2024 20:10

That wouldn't make sense the "few pounds" would just leave you account next time the monthly payment was due.

No it doesn’t, my parents left £1 outstanding on their mortgage for deed storage

Toomuch44 · 09/05/2024 20:17

As said Land Registry is electronic now, so any essential information will be with them if deeds lost. An application will need to be made to remove your mortgagee from the deeds, might be you can ask for any old deeds to be returned to you. If a solicitor is dealing with this, then deeds can be returned to solicitor who usually will store deeds securely for free (in the hope they'll get future business from you). We've paid ours off and our deeds are with solicitor (very lucky in that our solicitor supplied us with copies of plans relating to road/property pipework and fence ownership on purchase, which could be really handy for the future).

Winnading · 09/05/2024 20:19

You can sign up for free on the land registry alert.
Every six months they send you an email with "nothing to report " on each property.

Up to 10 properties can be on the list.
If anything does happen, it sends you an alert in between the six monthly.
So when I paid off my mortgage a week or 3 or 4 later I got an alert message saying "movement" on this property. It meant the mortgage was paid off, that was the "movement"

If someone tried to buy or sell or remortgage my house, it will send me an alert.

The deeds were sent back to me. Several months later I think. Dont know where they are now, but a 1980 build isn't historically relevant yet.

Redglitter · 09/05/2024 20:20

I got mine sent to me. They're in a folder with other house type things

Notaflippinclue · 09/05/2024 20:22

Our solicitor keeps them in a fireproof safe - doesn't cost owt

Feckedupbundle · 09/05/2024 20:25

Congratulations!
Our farm was bought 99 years ago,and still has a tiny amount owing on the mortgage,so the bank stores the deeds, it can be done,but bit much point these days.
The land that we built our house on was bought by my family 70 odd years ago,before the Land Registry ever existed,and was still in the family so it never had been registered.Luckily,as we tend to hang into paperwork in this family,we found the original bill of sale and receipts for it. We had to register it before it could be transferred to us and it took almost a year to do. We have no deeds for the house itself as we built it and paid for it in full so it's never been mortgaged or sold.

BigBoysDontCry · 09/05/2024 20:25

Congratulations. I'm in Scotland so could be different, but you need to pay to have the "charge" against your property by the BS or bank removed. According to the person I had on the phone, it's quite a simple process in England and Wales but here in Scotland you pretty much need to engage a solicitor to do it. I paid off mine about 8 years ago and as it was an offset mortgage, I was able to leave it with a zero balance.

I'm now splitting up and need to remortgage so had to get the charge the bank holds removed to go with a new lender. Cost me £240.

Hothotdamage · 09/05/2024 20:26

I have all the deeds, sent when we moved , still got a mortgage. I wonder why we have them and not the solicitor

BestIsWest · 09/05/2024 20:28

Nationwide kept ours - there’s a notional payment, a £ or so still owing. That was 10 years or so ago though.

Cotswoldbee · 09/05/2024 20:34

I still have the paper deeds from my previous house.🤓

As the OP mentioned, many years ago it was recommended that you leave a small amount outstanding on the mortgage so your bank would retain and "look after" the deeds. We left £50 outstanding (so minimal interest) but after a while it niggled that we still had a mortgage (had otherwise paid it off in 14-years) so we paid the outstanding amount, bought a fire-safe and put the deeds in there.
Time went on and we understood they were now held electronically but we kept them anyway and when we sold, no-one asked for them so they are still in a folder upstairs.

When we sold my late parents house a couple of years ago, the solicitor asked for the original paper deeds which we handed over.
Over the years my parents had bought a few plots of land to increase the size of their garden so I presume the solicitor wanted to make sure all the records & plans matched.🤔

flyingwingsabove · 09/05/2024 20:37

If there are old style paper ones they can be interesting to have a read of. You do need to ask a solicitor to discharge the mortgage security though. Have you done that?

Original poster
cava2nite · 09/05/2024 20:40

@flyingwingsabove "You do need to ask a solicitor to discharge the mortgage security though. Have you done that?"

What does this even mean? 🙃

OP posts:
BMW6 · 09/05/2024 20:41

The original paper deeds are completely worthless. They mean nothing legally, so there is absolutely no point in paying for storage.

They are interesting socially and historically if your property has some age.

Sadly ours were destroyed by Enemy Action in 1941 so all gone up in smoke, literally. Apparently there was a Covenant but there's no way of knowing what about! Shame as our house was built in 1888 and the first occupant was a Minister (courtesy of Library).

BMW6 · 09/05/2024 20:47

cava2nite · 09/05/2024 20:40

@flyingwingsabove "You do need to ask a solicitor to discharge the mortgage security though. Have you done that?"

What does this even mean? 🙃

I've no idea either. When we paid off our mortgage about 6 years ago there was no Solicitor involved. We had a letter from the lender confirming mortgage ended and that's that!

flyingwingsabove · 09/05/2024 20:55

Oh, I wonder if a discharge is a Scottish thing? Basically a document is prepared signed by the lender to confirm you’ve paid the mortgage off fully. Once done the Solicitor will then submit the paperwork to Registers and the lender is removed from the title.

BigBoysDontCry · 09/05/2024 20:55

cava2nite · 09/05/2024 20:40

@flyingwingsabove "You do need to ask a solicitor to discharge the mortgage security though. Have you done that?"

What does this even mean? 🙃

As I said previously, I think in E&W you can apply direct and you just need to send the letter from your lender confirming that the mortgage has no balance. In Scotland you pretty much need to engage a solicitor.

If the charge remains on the property, then it could cause issues/delays when selling or if you pass away as technically the lender still has a claim against the property value even though in reality you don't owe them anything.

BigBoysDontCry · 09/05/2024 20:59

The guy I spoke to kept trying to explain how simple it was in England even though I kept telling him that me and my property were in Scotland. Anyway he was a bit of a useless fucker and didn't even trigger the letter I needed to prove that the mortgage was paid off or leave proper notes. Kept telling me to call back when I wanted to go ahead and I kept saying I want to go ahead now and I'm on the phone now! Had to call back 2 weeks later when no letter arrived and got a girl who sorted it in 30 seconds....