If you have been wondering what is a title deed the answer is fairly straightforward. A title deed is the legal term for a document which records the ownership or transfer of a property.
These can include contracts of sale, lease agreements, wills and mortgage documents.
A property’s title deeds are made up of a trail of documents which together show its ownership history.
What are title deeds for property?
Together, all the documents relevant for confirming the ownership of a property are referred to as its title deeds.
This collection of documents is very important as they prove a certain person, group of people or a Limited Company owns the property they refer to.
Generally, title deeds extending back in a chain for 15 years are required to prove ownership of a property.
Title deeds can show you who owns a property now, who has owned it in the past, and if it is held as a freehold or as a leasehold.
In addition to confirming who currently owns a property, deeds for property also show the properties rough boundaries.
They will also state if any rights or access considerations apply. For example, title deeds will show if any public footpaths cross a property.
Title deeds may also include important information on previous conveyancing matters related to a property.
What does a title deed look like?
While in the past title deeds were impressive looking collections of handwritten paper legal documents, this is no longer usually the case.
Since the introduction of the Law of Property Act 1925, title deeds have been mostly typed and today are kept as digitally scanned documents by HM Land Registry.
The Land Registry takes the original title deeds and scans them when they are registered before returning them to whoever lodged them. This is usually the owner’s solicitor. It has been mandatory to register purchased residential property since 1990.
HM Land Registry is the definitive record of land ownership in England and Wales. If your property is registered, this supersedes paper deeds.
Nowadays, you are unlikely to encounter any paper title deeds. You no longer need to be given them physically when you buy a house or provide them to the new owner when you sell a house.
If you still have copies of any paper title deeds it can be worth holding on to them. They may contain information about the property that is hard to find elsewhere.
What are title deeds used for?
Title deeds are used to prove who is the owner of a property for many different reasons.
Normally, this is required prior to a sale, or during a legal dispute. As a further title deed example, divorce proceedings often require this to establish how a shared property is owned.
These deeds are also sometimes used during disputes over who should maintain boundary areas, such as fences or hedges.
When selling a property, the title deeds are required at the start of the process. Your conveyancer will request copies as soon as you instruct them.
This is because they need to be provided to any potential buyers’ conveyancers for them to review, ensuring you own the property as you claim.
Who holds the title deed for my property?
Generally, the first port of call when looking for title deeds is HM Land Registry.
If the property has been sold since 1990, when the registration of residential property became mandatory, they will have digital copies of the deeds.
If the property in question has not changed hands or been re-mortgaged since the 1990s it is likely the original deeds are not yet stored digitally.
How do I get a copy of my title deed?
The conventional way to obtain this is to request a copy of the title deed from the HM Land Registry.
The Law of Property Act 1988 made it possible for the public to obtain a copy of a property’s title documents without the knowledge or consent of the owners.
You can pay £3.00 to download a copy of the title register. This is a summary of the title deed for a property.
If you need a specific document, you should fill in a deeds request form, the OC2. Once you have filled in this form, you can order the specific documents which make up your deeds at a cost of £7.00 a document.
You will need to support an application with documents relating to your history in the property. Death certificates, probate documents, transfer papers, conveyancing letters, mortgage statements and utility bills can all play an important part supporting your claim.
When buying or selling a house, your conveyancer should handle all the work related to the property’s deeds.
Do title deeds show covenants?
A covenant is an agreement made when land is sold. They come in two types.
Restrictive Covenants run with the land and continue to apply to a property no matter how many times it is sold. Personal Covenants only apply to the person buying the land, and not the person they sell it on to.
Covenants are usually recorded in the title register, with more details often being held in the other documents which make up the deed.
Do deeds show easements?
An easement is a private right to use another person’s property without owning it.
There are four main types of easement. These are rights of way, rights of light, rights of support and rights relating to artificial waterways.
An easement is recorded on the deeds of both the property that benefits, which is called the dominant tenement, and the property which has the burden, which is called the servient tenement.
In the case of registered land, easements should be recorded on the title register.
Do I need my title deeds to sell my house?
If a property is registered with the land registry paper copies of its title deeds are unnecessary for selling it.
If the property is unregistered, this changes. When property is unregistered the paper title deeds are still the primary proof of ownership.
If you intend to sell unregistered property or land you will need to provide the physical title deeds to prove it is yours.
These title deeds will be handed over to the buyer’s conveyancer following a sale.
They will then proceed to apply for registration with HM Land Registry. This is mandatory upon the purchase of unregistered land.
Replacing lost title deeds
Paper title deeds can be quite easy to lose, especially when inherited, or in disasters like floods or house fires.
Replacing lost deeds to an unregistered property can be complicated. In this situation it is worth checking with the solicitors you instructed when you bought the property as they may still have a copy in their records.
Alternatively, it could be worth checking with your mortgage lender. In the past, it was common for mortgage lenders to hold onto title deeds to speed things up in case they needed to repossess a property.
If you still cannot locate your deeds, you will need to apply for a First Registration based on a Statement of Truth.
A First Registration Based on a Statement of Truth is a Complex Process. It involves providing HM land Registry with a fully factual account of the circumstances leading up to the loss of your original title deeds.
In Summary
Title deeds for a property are historically, very important paper documents. However, today most paper deeds have been effectively replaced with the online title register.
This makes buying and selling property easier as conveyancers can check against and alter the master copy held by HM Land Registry.
Historic deed documents are still sometimes useful, however. This is because they can show important additional details about a property, including covenants, and boundaries, that are not included in full on the title register.
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