These can help you trace the owners and occupiers of your house. If the title deeds to your house are not in your possession, they may be with your solicitor or mortgage company. The survival of older deeds is by no means guaranteed, for the Law of Property Act 1925 limited the need for evidence of title to 30 years. Older deeds may however have survived in a repository as part of a deposited solicitor's collection or collection of family and estate papers. If your property was, for instance, once part of a landed estate, it is quite possible that some title deeds can still be found among the papers relating to that estate. Many substantial collections of deeds, family and estate papers have been deposited in county record offices and other repositories. Look at the ARCHON Directory for an up to date list of contact details for record offices.

The system of compulsory land registration now operating in England and Wales developed gradually during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In some counties, registration did not become compulsory until the 1950s. The land register can be consulted by members of the public: for information about access see the Land Registry.

The Register of Sasines, which records changes of ownership of land in Scotland from the seventeenth century, can be consulted at the National Archives of Scotland. For details of other useful records relating to the transfer of property in Scotland, see the NAS buildings fact sheet(13kb)

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