Pepper will not give me my deeds although my mortgage is paid off

[KeelinM]

I am in the following situation
paid my mortgage off in full (13 March), was told to wait 8 - 12 weeks for deeds. Today is 12 weeks. Called Pepper, they cannot tell me when I will have my deeds. They have logged a complaint for me.
Unfortunately, they have never called me back / been in contact when they said they would, so I am very concerned about how to get these deeds.
Pepper refuse to give me any email addresses (excuse being, it's not safe to transmit information by email! ), so any addresses you could provide me, would be great.

 

[MrEarl]

Hello,

The Pepper staff on the commercial side of the business have personal email addresses (which they openly give out on their business cards), so I laugh every time the Pepper staff on the retail side of the business tell me that they don't have email etc.

It's possible that the title deeds are held by a third party, who did the original legal work when the mortgage was created and the homeloan advanced. Contact the solicitor's firm that did your side of the legal work when you took out the loan, and ask who did the legal work for the lender at the time. Also, ask if they can assist you by contacting the solicitors who acted for the lender at the time to "give them a nudge". The solicitor who acted for you might be willing to do that if they feel that there is other potential business there for them (you may need them to store your title deeds in the future, or you may need a will prepared etc.) Failing that, you could try calling them yourself and asking if Pepper have contacted them, if they have returned the title documents to Pepper etc.

Obviously, continue to put pressure on Pepper through their complaints procedure. You must follow this procedure and get a final response from them, before you can take the complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman.

 

[KeelinM]

Hi MrEarl,

Thanks for your advice, I called Pepper every day, got names of people I was talking to, their managers etc, basically made my situation known. After 5 days of me calling every day, I got a call to say they had located my deeds and would send them to me. I received them by registered post this morning. There is still a "deed of discharge" to come, which they promise I will get in the next 2 weeks. Persistence paid off, thanks for the advice.

 

[MrEarl]

Delighted to hear that, KeelinM.

Don't be shy about chasing the Deed of Discharge either, if it's not forthcoming.

Sadly, this is never going to be a high priority for a Bank, not alone an outsource company.

I'd suggest that you refuse to let them close the formal complaint you logged, until you have received your Deed of Discharge (that will help keep them on their toes, to a certain extent )

 

[Galway62]

Hi and I got my Deed of Discharge from my bank but what do I do with it now? Do I have to send it off somewhere and can I do this myself or do I need a solicitor? Any replies greatly received.Thanks all.

 

[MrsMoo]

Hi, if it's registered title ( you can tell this if a folio number is quoted on the discharge) you have to lodge this in the land registry. The fee is 40 euro. You don't need a solicitor. You will need picture id and proof of address. If you can't attend the office in person you can download a form from their website "land registry personal applicants ID form". You need to fill out the section entitled "applicants not attending a public office" once you have followed the instructions and provided the proofs you can send it all to land reg by registered post.