Can I just throw out all this old paperwork?

[confusedlots]

I am having a major declutter. Our house could easily feature on Sort Your Life Out so you can imagine what I am dealing with. This is a mammoth task and one which is taking a long time, but I do feel like I am slowly getting somewhere.

I am currently working through all our paperwork and important documents, throwing out what I can and filing the rest where I can actually easily it in the future, hopefully no more spending hours searching for lost passports or someone’s birth certificate when I need it.

I have house insurance documents dating back 10 years and more (before everything was sent electronically and you received everything in the post), car insurance documents, rates bills etc. do I need to keep these? I’ve shredded loads of old bank statements from years ago (again from back when you got sent a monthly statement in the post) but for some reason I’m wondering if I need to keep these insurance documents etc? Would there be any reason I would need them now? I’d love to get rid of as much as I can but clearly not if I might need it for some reason?

No point keeping documents for a policy term that’s expired. I had a big paperwork clear out about 18 months ago and haven’t needed anything I threw out, and if I did I’m sure I could order copies. If it makes you feel better, take photographs before you chuck them!

Buy a small concertina file to keep all your “documents I would need if the house burned down” and photograph them / email them to yourself before putting them somewhere you can find easily!

We barely have any documents at all. Seriously, next to zero.
Car documents are kept in the book and stored in the relevant car. All insurance stuff is digitally retrievable and to date we’ve never needed them or been unable to access them.
birth certificates are kept in my office in a folder. I don’t know where mine is and I don’t think I’ve ever seen dh’s!

No, you don't need old insurance documents, the contract you had with them expired so it's of no relevance. The insurers will have their own records anyway.

I second the concertina file storage, we have one with all our various insurances, certificates, passports, GHIC cards, health documents, etc etc. I'm sure in a fire situation we'd just try to get out rather than saving the file, but it's handy to have all your important documents in one place.

I dont think it's advised to keep your log book in your car

Not a great idea to keep car documents in the car. If someone steals it, they’ll be delighted to have the V5 and MOT certificate so they can quickly sell it on.

Yes that’s a good idea to have important documents in one file, I think I’ll do that once I finally get everything sorted out. What do you keep together? Passports, birth certificates, marriage certificate, insurance details? What else do I need to think about?

Bank statements should be kept 6 years but I cant remember why.

If you must keep hard copies here’s a start: This list is not exhaustive.

House Insurance (current only)
House equipment manuals
Car Insurance + MOT Certificates + V5
Bank stuff (but not statements)
HMRC
DWP
Health hospital letters.
Life & health insurance
Stocks & shares info
Jewellery valuations
School certificates
Birth & marriage certificates & passports
Will
Receipts for big purchases

I bought some nice file covers, named them, and use an old school tuck box to store them. I regularly weed and shred.
Works for me.

I go with the archiving period my work has, 13 years from the end of the relationship was a customer. That doesn't mean it has to be kept paper. We normally scan what comes in in paper and then file it in relevant folder, for example, council tax bills or some bank statements we can't get the bank to change to electronic.

The only original documents we hold our birth certificates, marriage certificate, naturalisation certificates, GCSE and A-level certificates. I also have some of my school records, which I must confess I keep for sentimental reasons.

We keep 7 years paperwork but old insurance stuff like that doesn’t need to be kept.We have a small filing cabinet with folders in. We have kept paperwork for 2 insurance claims though, one was a really big claim when our kitchen ceiling collapsed. Ruined bathroom and kitchen due to huge leak and was thousands. We had no kitchen for 3 months in the end.

@PashaMinaMio We have downloaded or scanned all household manuals and that meant a huge file could be chucked.

If you must, take photos of them or scan them, and keep them digitally?

what sprung to mind was old share certificates and premium bonds.

you could go onto your online banking if you have it and ask the chatbot how long you need to keep paper copies.

OP are you shredding or burning it or chucking your (confidential) information in the paper recycling?

So money stuff you keep for 7 years because of the tax man, everything else in terms of utilities I only keep the current one. We have a filing cabinet that could do with being cleared out but most of the important stuff ends up there.

I've had to supply bank statements older than 6 years for AML purposes when buying a house as there's no limit to how far back they can demand and it depends on the individual conveyancer what you will need. Insurance documents wouldn't be necessary though.

The only paperwork I have is my birth certificate, passport and tenancy agreement for my home! That's it. Everything else is online. I've never needed anything and not had it.

I keep a record of expired insurance policy numbers and dates [not the documents]. I do this with no claim discounts in mind. I don't know if I need to but it only takes a minute to jot the information down.

Id only keep pension stuff ... only cyrrebt year for insurance and bank statements (though latter o,n-line).

We are just going through my parents paperwork as they have gone into a care home. Once I have sorted theirs out I am going to go through mine and be properly ruthless.
Bank statements can be printed out online.
One of the problems of keeping everything and not being particularly organised where you keep it is it’s difficult for you - and almost impossible for anyone else- to figure out what’s important amongst it all.

P60s should be kept forever, it says do not destroy on the document.
There was a lady on here a while ago, who had issues with her NI contributions statement, and she needed her P60’s to prove she had earned enough to get the NI credit the Gov Gateway site had lost.

When I changed tax brackets, HMRC had a close look at the interest I earned and I had to submit interest figures of the last 20 years. Luckily, we had everything scanned in when we went through our paper files.

Some things I do not throw away, at least I keep an electronic black out of it.

Many banks let you download copies of bank statements going back several years. If you need older ones, some will provide these if requested.

Yes those are the main things. I also have a sheet of paper with each of our NI numbers, NHS numbers, driving licence numbers and blood types.

Another sensible thing to do is write down all of your account/policy/utility bill numbers. My In-laws did this and it made things so much easier when they died. Probate and account closures were a doddle.

I disagree with the majority on this.

out house insurance had legal cover added on and it is what I used to bring a claim against my employer. It had to be from when the issue arose and that house insurance policy was in paper form from a few years ago. If I hadn’t had this detail my claim would have been declined (the bill is currently £15000 in legal fees)

I would take photos of the policies if they had additional extras like legal cover. Then bin the paper copies

Yes it’s more about the old insurance documents etc that I’m wary of throwing out. Most people change insurance providers regularly to get the best price so if someone asked me who my house insurance was with 5 years ago I wouldn’t have a clue and definitely wouldn’t know the account details etc unless I could find something in my emails. So I do think I’ll keep them for now.

I’m not so bothered about the old bank statements. We’re still with the same bank so I have all the account details and could likely access whatever old information I might need through them. I just had kept all those old statements from years and years ago when it was usual to be sent a monthly statement in the post.

I’ve kept all my old P60s.

And once I finally get this mountain of paperwork in order I am definitely planning to set up a file with all important information in it, account numbers etc. For instance, I tend to look after the kids savings accounts/ISA’s etc and I don’t think my DH would have any idea what money they had saved or where it was if I wasn’t here. So there is lots to get in order!