Bank retaining title postmortgage

OSI

This may well be standard practice, but it's not something I've heard of before so figured I'd ask.

I recently requested a copy of our land folio for a site upon which our primary personal residence is located. The site and property were purchased together in 2001 with a mortgage from Bank of Ireland, and this mortgage was later cleared in full in 2005. I noted however that the folio states the title is still help by solicitors on behalf of Bank of Ireland with this being the case as of 2003. I've since rang the bank and they state this is standard procedure on their behalf following a mortgage being paid and that you have the request the title back from them.

This just seemed a little odd to me and the gentleman on the seemed somewhat guarded in his response.

Would this be standard for a bank to retain title by default once a mortgage is cleared?

Trish56

When you redeem a mortgage the lender should return the deeds to your Solicitor and the charge on the deeds should also be cancelled. Usually the bank charges a fee to do this so maybe you need to contact your Solicitor to see if the deeds were returned and all charges cancelled.

OSI wrote: »

This may well be standard practice, but it's not something I've heard of before so figured I'd ask.

I recently requested a copy of our land folio for a site upon which our primary personal residence is located. The site and property were purchased together in 2001 with a mortgage from Bank of Ireland, and this mortgage was later cleared in full in 2005. I noted however that the folio states the title is still help by solicitors on behalf of Bank of Ireland with this being the case as of 2003. I've since rang the bank and they state this is standard procedure on their behalf following a mortgage being paid and that you have the request the title back from them.

This just seemed a little odd to me and the gentleman on the seemed somewhat guarded in his response.

Would this be standard for a bank to retain title by default once a mortgage is cleared?

skippy2

May well be their standard practice but not yours. Dont trust a Bank with anything you dont have to. I would instruct them in writing to release all Hold they have on title and release all documentation back to you ASAP.

Avatar MIA

Some people PAY their bank to mind their deeds. If the mortgage is paid there is no lean. How could there be.

homer911

1. Storing of title deeds is not generally free - if the mortgage is cleared, you will either pay your solicitor, or your bank (not usually interested) or rent a safe deposit box. Personally I have a small fire-proof safe at home
2. The banks don't typically release the mortgage on repayment of the loan without charging a fee. Leaving the mortgage in place can be of benefit to the borrower if they subsequently chose to release equity in the property - a big saving on legal fees

Avatar MIA

The one problem with leaving with your bank is that they can get lost.

3DataModem

Bank of Ireland have not got a great history of retaining deeds over long periods. Get them somewhere else, is my advice.