What to do with title, assignment docs?

Bit of a funny one, hopefully some one on the legal or banking side will be able to point me in the right direction.

Bought my house a no. of years back, got a mortgage with bank "A". Recently remortgaged with bank "B". Bit of a drawn out process, but eventually went through. Got a letter from bank "A" telling me my mortgage was paid off & thanking me for my business. Funny part though is a couple of weeks later, I got a call from bank "A" telling that my title, assigment, mortgage documents were in the bank ready for me to collect. Went in today & collected them, but now I'm not sure what to do with them.

Firstly, am I supposed to have them, should bank "B" be holding them?

If I do hold on to them, where should I keep them? Thinking some form of fireproof safe at a minimum.

I believe bank "B" use some big firm for conveyancing who underwrite the title, rather than doing a full search etc. which might have some bearing on this.

Thanks.

Thats fantastic!!! So you now have your deeds and in theory you could now dispose of the property and take all the money and run? If Bank B have not registered their mortgage yet, that is incredibly sloppy.

I think you should not have your deeds and I suggest that you should just swing by your own new bank branch and hand the deeds in.That way, should anything happen to the deeds, it will not be your problem. I know its the bank's problem but I don't believe in exacerbating other peoples messes.

mf

mf1 said:

That way, should anything happen to the deeds, it will not be your
problem.

Click to expand...

Will that not impact the OP when selling if the deeds went missing even though it was not his fault?

Agree with mf1 on that one - drop the deeds into your new bank for safe-keeping.

I've heard of people keeping a small amount on their mortgage just so the bank would hold onto their deeds. Obviously, very important documents and not something to have lying around the house!

"Will that not impact the OP when selling if the deeds went missing even though it was not his fault?"

No - Bank should have Deeds as security, if they take the Deeds and then lose them, they must deal with the problem. If OP loses Deeds when they should have been with Bank, then while Bank should have made sure to have them, OP still had them in their care and control when they went missing.

I still think its too sloppy for words.

mf

AFAIK there should be a schedule of documents listing all the documents comprising the title deeds - make sure the bank give you a copy of this and written acknowledgement of receipt of all the documents set out in the schedule.

Thanks for the advice so far.Got a schedule from bank "A" when collecting the docs, which they went through with me. Guess I should receive the same from bank "B" when I drop them off, assuming they want them I'll give them a call.

dd

I used a solicitor from their panel, no discussion as to what would happen with original documents at any stage. As mentioned before, bank "B" uses a title insurance remortgage service.

Lodge them with a bank for safe keeping. These are very important documents and should be kept in the same place as you would keep a very large sum of money.

When our mortgage was paid off two years ago. ACC forwarded the title documents to our solicitor. He then wrote to us to confirm that he had received them. Suits us fine. We know where they are, if we need them!

KEEP THEM!! i am in the middle of hell on earth for the past 6 months as neither the solicitor or the bank are accepting repsonsibilty for the deeds that are now lost.
Its all very well saying oh they'll be responsible...but this is no good to you. trying to get any joy with law society against solicitor is riduculous and the bank just categorically states its solicitors fault.