Can I see the deeds to my house?

snowey07

does anyone know if Im entitled to see the deeds from my house. At the moment theyre in my solicitors office and ive asked for a list of previous owners before it goes to be stored where ever they store the files.


Its 130 years old and I really want to know who lived there over the years but the solictors secretary reckons Im not allowed view or get copies of the deeds.
my argument was why are they allowed see the files while I own the house and cant view it .

So legally can they tell me im not allowed see the deeds before theyre filed ?

silja

You can demand the deeeds off them and keep them in a bank safe or similar, so no idea why she'd refuse you.

Betty Draper

what

Of course you can see them - tell th secretary you want a copy of the Schedule of Deeds - this will give you the list of included in the title which should include names.

Then you can decide if there are any documents you want copied but they are filed.

beeno67

snowey07 wrote: »

does anyone know if Im entitled to see the deeds from my house. At the moment theyre in my solicitors office and ive asked for a list of previous owners before it goes to be stored where ever they store the files.


Its 130 years old and I really want to know who lived there over the years but the solictors secretary reckons Im not allowed view or get copies of the deeds.
my argument was why are they allowed see the files while I own the house and cant view it .

So legally can they tell me im not allowed see the deeds before theyre filed ?

Do you own the house? If so the deeds are yours. Or do you have a mortgage? In which case the bank holds the deeds

Milk & Honey

If there is an undertaking to the bank, your solicitor is holding the deeds on trust for the bank. There is no reason why you cannot be given photocopies of the deeds. You may have to pay for the photocopying.
If your house is in Dublin, you can look up the Thom's Guide in the National Library. They have volumes for most years back into the 19th Century. You can also check the 1911 Census and the 1901 census online.
The deeds may not show a full history in any event. The new property Act now allows very short roots of title to be produced. Depending on the sales history of the house the vendor may only have to show a the original and a relatively recent conveyance.

snowey07

Hi All , thanks so much !

I have a mortgage so the deeds will be going to the bank I guess.

Ive asked three times can I just have a list of previous owners and dates and each time they give me grief and blind me with jargon.

Plan tommorow is to remember what ive read here and ring the solicitor directly. All I need is half an hour and Ill write copy them by hand

D3PO

if you have a mortgage i dont think your entitled to access them. thats what I understand anyway

Jo King

D3PO wrote: »

if you have a mortgage i dont think your entitled to access them. thats what I understand anyway

It is a matter of the solicitor and ultimately the bank when the bank takes custody of the deeds. The solicitor will be sued if he fails to deliver the deeds to the bank and will be guilty of professional misconduct. If the o/p was to grab the deeds and run out the door with them, the solicitor would be in serious trouble. A request for copies is the obvious thing. The deeds may not reveal all that much in terms of the history of the house. The o/p can expect a hefty bill if she insists on a load of photocopying.

JustAThought

My solicitor needed to get access to the deeds of my place. They were held by the bank cos I've still a long way to go my mortgage. I had to fill in some paperwork, pay the bank a e10 fee, The solicitors fees, and hey presto my solicitor got a loan of the deeds to do their work! Easy peasy!

If it's the history of the house you re after you might find the land registry helpful: the Dublin one is in the 4 courts; you trot in, ask for the address and they tell you who it's registered to after you pay them a fiver. The might well have the past owners listed too.

Just a thought. The solicitor is pissing you around: you are Hiring them to do this work for you; and you can be sure that when you have an issue they will fall back on the line "I can't advise you, I have to follow your instructions". This is a simple thing; photocopy; it's not new scientific discoveries. So.Query why theyre behaving in such a difficult way to you as a client. Ask to speak to the partner or name owner of the solicitors if you arnt dealing with them. Bypass the clerk. Ask them the fee for photocopying the deeds. Get in in writing. Make sure theres no sneaky huge administration fee or VAT Tate on top of it, and INSTRUCT them to give you a copy of only the relevant pages that contain the names of the previous owners. If they keep pussing you about put a complaint in writing to them. And then ring the law library and make a complaint to them. You ll probably get your photocopy very quick if they see you ate going to do that. The key is the quote, and the use of the word instruction, and get it in writing.

Happy new house and historical hunting; sounds just fab!! I'm jealous!!!

snowey07

Thanks everyone for the advice, i got all I needed in the end. I asked the Land registery who said once they were still with the solicitor there was no problem.

I got the name of each of the people attached to a deed but strangely there was only 4 names and four dates for 130 years !

1881
1884
1981
2008

Im presuming the same family had the deeds for a hundred years but surely theyd have changed names at some stage . The 1981 person bought out the ground rent so maybe it was to do with the land lease. Anyway its too late now , deeds have gone to to be registerd and then will go to the bank .

it was quite exciting to see the original paperwork leasing the land out, it was all beautifully written etc Im happy I persued it