Key Post Where to store title deeds?

NOAH

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A friend who owns their house outright from 10 years ago had the deeds stored by a company in Dublin, the bank at the time suggested them, fee was nominal then, but now with 6 days notice he has to pay 150 euro for 10 years or 95 for 5.

Is there a cheaper and just as safe alternative? They are down the country, Clare.
 
My deeds are in a well hidden house safe bolted to the floorboards, mine you that is all that is in it, would that not work...
 
A fireproof safe about the size of a briefcase will cost you around 50-80 from Woodies. Though it will protect the deeds from damage, it can still be stolen. A bolt to the floor safe is much better but will cost you more than 150.

€150 for 10 years storage sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
 
We were looking for a safe while back. some only provide you with a 30 minutes burn time, some had 3 hours (not much good if your away and only you know where the safe is and its attached to fitted cupboards inside a false back).

You need to double check all details of it first in a good locksmith shop. A shop was selling us one that you could bolt to your house and is fireproof. A few locksmiths told us that anyone you bolt is not fireproof for very long as it has points of weakness.

We were advised to dig a hole outside and put a waterproof safe into a larger safe (not one with electronic codes etc but manual)....pop in few of those little sachets into it to absorb moisture or make your own with rice.
 
We were looking for a safe while back. some only provide you with a 30 minutes burn time, some had 3 hours (not much good if your away and only you know where the safe is and its attached to fitted cupboards inside a false back).

You need to double check all details of it first in a good locksmith shop. A shop was selling us one that you could bolt to your house and is fireproof. A few locksmiths told us that anyone you bolt is not fireproof for very long as it has points of weakness.

We were advised to dig a hole outside and put a waterproof safe into a larger safe (not one with electronic codes etc but manual)....pop in few of those little sachets into it to absorb moisture or make your own with rice.

€15 per year sounds like great value now. :)
 
My safe cost about €40 from recollection and is internally screwed to the floor joists with heavy duty screws, there is also a feature that allows the back of the safe to also be screwed, to be honest I do not give any thought to a fire, if a fire destroyed my house getting deeds copied would not be my biggest worry, each to their own but as far as I'm concerned my deeds are safely secured and under my control where they are.
 
Why all this fuss about title deeds?

If they are stolen, what might happen? That the thief sells your home without you knowing?

If the house gets burned down, so what?

Both events are extremely unlikely, and you can reconstitute them if it happens.

Brendan
 
'and you can reconstitute them if it happens. '

Ah now..............

As we move into a time of compulsory title registration, that may well be the sceal in the future but we're not there yet.

My advice? Pay the money to store the Deeds securely.

If you can't or won't do that, ask a solicitor to review the title deeds and identify the important ones. Scan and copy those , keep a copy in your email inbox, give one copy to a friend to keep, another copy not in your house and the originals in your hot press. In my experience, that's where most of my (admittedly) elderly clients keep theirs! A safe is a better idea.

It is far easier to reconstitute title where you have copies of the most important deeds. It can be very expensive to try and reconstitute deeds from thin air!

When we all pop our clogs , it is an added stress for family to waste time and money on reconstituting deeds when you have an empty house, insurance issues and trying to sell.

mf
 
If your home is brick built, you could remove a few bricks and place the safe in the cavity and concrete it securely in. That is we did we did, and cover front with a picture.
Browtal
 
I think my title deeds are stuffed in a folder somewhere along with architects drawings and miscellaneous bumpff. In fact, I couldn't quite say where they are, nor would I necessarily recognise them if I saw them -- if I ever saw them it was a decade ago. In any case, I never registered any title to the house (how does one go about doing that?), so it's just the plot. I suppose I should get around to sorting things out sometime. Meanwhile nobody's disputed my right to live there -- the only ones interested are those collecting various taxes.
 
I had my mortgage with the EBS. Now cleared I have never received any correspondence from the EBS to ask me to take my deeds so they have been sitting in their safe for the past number of years.
Having said that I must take them soon because I would rather have them. I remember a term called "vacating a mortgage". Can someone explain what this is and is there a charge to have this process completed?
 
Do you not just register and lodge the Deed of Discharge with the Land registry?
 
if I ever saw them it was a decade ago. In any case, I never registered any title to the house (how does one go about doing that?), so it's just the plot.

You don't have to do anything, the house is registered as it sits on the plot !
 
I had my mortgage with the EBS. Now cleared

I remember a term called "vacating a mortgage". Can someone explain what this is and is there a charge to have this process completed?

Yes this was the old procedure, for my bank Ulster it nowadays costs nothing, in the past it was less than 100Euro, and would have been highlighted in your original mortgage loan offer, but there is a new way of doing it and the bank should have done that by now for you as the mortgage is repaid. And you really need to ask to get your deeds back. It took my banks nearly a year to find mine.
 
Why all this fuss about title deeds?

If they are stolen, what might happen? That the thief sells your home without you knowing?

If the house gets burned down, so what?

Both events are extremely unlikely, and you can reconstitute them if it happens.

Brendan

I bought a house, no mortgage attached earlier in the year and on completion the solicitor send me copies of the title deeds through email.:confused: Should I have received the originals?
 
someone would have the originals, perhaps your solicitor. they are probably better kept in his/her safe than in your own house, lest they get lost or damaged.
 
A friend who owns their house outright from 10 years ago had the deeds stored by a company in Dublin, the bank at the time suggested them, fee was nominal then, but now with 6 days notice he has to pay 150 euro for 10 years or 95 for 5.

Is there a cheaper and just as safe alternative? They are down the country, Clare.
Any idea what company provides this service?
 
If you can't or won't do that, ask a solicitor to review the title deeds and identify the important ones. Scan and copy those , keep a copy in your email inbox, give one copy to a friend to keep, another copy not in your house and the originals in your hot press. In my experience, that's where most of my (admittedly) elderly clients keep theirs! A safe is a better idea.
Would there be a huge number of unimportant ones? I was wondering if, by the time you've engaged a solicitor and got them to do the review, you'd be quicker just to scan everything yourself? Most home scanners are pretty easy to use now, and most workplace printers are also scanners, so most people have access to decent scanners.

I think you're on the wrong track with your 'copy in your inbox' idea. These are reasonably sensitive and valuable documents. Unless you run your own private email server, they will have to travel over the internet to get into your inbox. Internet email is not secure or confidential. It is roughly equivalent to a postcard or an unsealed envelope. I suspect that you wouldn't send a copy of documents by standard post in an open envelope, so I wouldn't recommend sending them by internet email either. Then there is the whole question of whether you want Google/Microsoft/Yahoo to have a copy of house deeds as well.

I'd suggest getting two or three good quality but small capacity USB sticks, and put a copy of the deeds, and maybe a few other important documents like wills on each stick. Keep one at home and one is a safe place in work, and maybe give another copy to a trusted friend (your executor perhaps?).
 
This company appear to be reasonably priced @ €29.99 per annum.

I never heard of them, don’t know anything about them, and have no connection whatsoever with them.

Does anyone know anything about them, good bad or whatever ?

Their website would not instil confidence.

http://deeds.ie/
 
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