What to do if house deeds are missing?

[BunnyRuddington]

Just helping done elderly relatives to sell their home only I can’t find the house deeds.

What is the normal practice in this situation?

Is there a solicitor dealing with the sale?? If not check with the land registry. As far as I know the deeds are held by the solicitor until the property is sold

Should have added that there is a chance they’ve been taken as some family took items from the house when they realised it was empty.

How long have they owned the house? Is it registered with the Land Registry?

I just got our deeds from the land registry for the sum of £11 (via the gov website) but I did have a reference code. However not all houses will be registered, especially if it hasn't been sold in decades. MIL's house sale was delayed because the house has to be registered with them - we eventually found the deeds in a bank (the bank had provided the mortgage 20+ years ago). Your solicitor will be able to help.

The mortgage was paid some time ago so I don’t think a Solicitor will have them. They think that the deeds may have befn in the house but we’ve not found them.

It depends how long they’ve lived in the house and if it’s registered.

if they’ve been there after, I want to say, 1992, then the land should be registered on the land registry. You can check this yourself here

https://search-property-information.service.gov.uk/?_ga=2.227252893.1011285419.1624257816-2123334908.1623227908

if not, proving ownership might be more difficult and you’d need to speak to a solicitor

Following because I have a similar issue

They’ve befn there since around 1972.

@BunnyRuddington and @SimoneHere
As a pp advised do a search with Land Registry and request a copy of 5he register. https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry There is a small charge.

Also sign up for the Property Alert service, it’s free. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/property-alert
This notifies you of any activity on the property if it’s registered.

If there is a chance someone has acquired the paper deeds, then please make sure that you register on the Property Alert. , so you are notified if anyone tries to sell or transfer the property.
also, if the property was mortgaged but the mortgage paid off, then the lender may be storing them for your relative.

In our case it’s not on the land registry (Scottish equivalent) and the solicitor who was dealing with the sale has lost the deeds.

The deeds will be held with the land registry, not with the house.

We sold dms house without the deeds- we checked and solicitor checked land registry.

The important thing is whether or not the house is registered with the land registry. We discovered that PIL’s home, which they organised building of themselves on land they had purchased, had not been registered. No deeds in FIL’s home on his death. So far my DH has had solicitors working on this for over 5 years (I say 5 years but I think they only do something every 6 months or so and every time DH contacts them to chase up he gets another charge). Apparently they have now done all the paperwork for the registration from next March. I really hope that you have better luck.

When I finished paying my mortgage I had to ask a solicitor to get the charge removed from the deeds and the bank, who were holding the deeds, released them to the solicitor. (No idea about the legal terminology, I just paid the bill!)

As my will was held by the solicitor they've also kept the deeds so might be worth tracking down the solicitor who drew up the will if they're a different firm to the one you're using now?