mortgage company sent me the title deeds

The Bank will charge to keep documents. A good tip, if you have a regular solicitor, is to ask them to store key documents (such as your will, house deeds, policies) and they are unlikely to charge you for it.

The banks and building societies are now reluctant to store unnecessary papers. They are hoping to move towards virtually paperless offices.

The documents would be of no use at all to a thief. You can expect to find among the papers:

a) old conveyances and mortgages - these ought to have been thrown away long ago but solicitors are fearful of throwing anything away and prefer to pass the papers down from one solicitor to another b) old local authority searches and answers to preliminary enquiries - same as above c) approvals for planning permission and building regs approvals - these are important and need to be kept safe but if necessary (ie if they got lost) copies could be obtained from the local authority d) receipts for double glazing, damp proofing, timber treatment - these are probably the most important since they are often difficult to replace.

Consider throwing away the documents that are no use to anyone, and keep the rest with your life insurance documents and other important documents. Don't lose sleep over it.

If any of them are still current (eg a 99 year lease which is still running) then of course they need to be kept safe. Usually the old conveyances and mortgages date from fifty years ago or more, and anything important with valid restrictive covenants in it, would be lodged at the Land Registry. If in doubt, keep the conveyances but throw away the "charges" or "mortgages" if they are plainly out of date. There may also be various spare copies of some of the papers and they can be thrown away too.

Very few solicitors will store documents for free anymore. Storage space costs money. We got a letter a few years ago saying it would cost us £80 per year to keep our deeds safe. I now have them in a tin document case at home.

There has been a change in the Land Registry rules within the last 6 months or so, whereby they no longer issue "land certificates" or "charge certificates" and all you get is an office copy of the computer record. This means that what you are given is not something a thief could use to steal your property from you. Anyone can apply to the Land Registry for an office copy of any entry. Needless to say, if it was valuable the bank/building society would insist on keeping it.

"Andy Fish" wrote in news:X2Ofc.100151$ snipped-for-privacy@news-lhr.blueyonder.co.uk:

Why not keep them safe, and start a new hobby? :)

In message , The Todal writes

Compulsory registration is relatively recent n some areas and there could be many that are considerbaly younger than that.

.... and discharged.