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House deeds

PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 11:25 pm
by triggerhappy
Does anyone have the deeds to their house? I know they're usually kept stowed away by the mortgage company/solicitor, but my mother has just gotten her hands on hers after paying off her mortgage and I managed to have a wee look before it got sent away to a safe. Tons of great info on the origins of the house and all of the changes it went through before we bought it, including some really interesting stuff about the restrictions Sir John Stirling Maxwell imposed on buildings in the area (Pollokshields) during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

I'll try to get some of the info up (without the sensitive details, of course), but I was wondering if anyone else had discovered anything of note in the deeds to their house?

Re: House deeds

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 7:10 am
by Its_a_gamp
We don't have our deeds (the mortgage company does), but in 2000 we were sent all the assignations and dispositions regarding our house for the last 100 years. In 2000 most of these were destroyed, as it was no longer required that they be kept by solicitors and for some reason ours were sent to us to do what we liked with.

They make interesting reading. Who bought the house, when, how much for and where they borrowed the money from, or in a couple of cases who inherited it.

We live at no. 13 and discovered that when the house was built it was originally no.11, the houses being renumbered many years ago. I find this funny as when we moved here, the people at no.15 said they could never live in a house with a 13 in it, and they are and just don't know it. (superstitious mumbo jumbo nonsense)

Re: House deeds

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:38 am
by Doorstop
I'd tell them .. just to be evil. :twisted:

Re: House deeds

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:55 pm
by Its_a_gamp
Doorstop wrote:I'd tell them .. just to be evil. :twisted:


I quite like them and get on ok with them, if it had been some of my other neighbours I definitely would have :twisted:

Re: House deeds

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 5:13 pm
by Timchilli
I handle old Sasine title deeds on a regular basis and I'm continually amazed at how little effort is made to maintain these deeds in good condition. I mean, I've seen 18th century deeds rammed into cardboard folders, folded into oblivion, crumpled up and shoved in the back of a file, etc. An ignominious end for many beautifully-scribed items.

Sadly the pace of registration in the Land Register for Scotland does away with the need for these old writs, as the details of any burdens/pertinent facts are transcribed into your Land Certificate.

To hold the original titles to your property in your hands is a real connection with the past. If you can, press your solicitor for the prior writs to your property.

Re: House deeds

PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:55 pm
by Vinegar Tom
I had copies of the deeds to my old flat in Govanhill.

Details of all the sales , owners etc of the building. It made me really think about the space I was occupying and the fact that it really did exist before me, and had been home to generations.

The tenement museum is basically the same size and plan and gave me a similar history moment.

Unfortunately the restrictions prevented me from keeping livestock or erecting buildings in the back-court, and from using my upper floor flat as a shop 8O

Re: House deeds

PostPosted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:03 am
by Its_a_gamp
Vinegar Tom wrote:
Unfortunately the restrictions prevented me from keeping livestock or erecting buildings in the back-court, and from using my upper floor flat as a shop 8O


We are allowed to have chickens, but are not allowed to have a smiths or a tannery (not sure where they thought a tannery would fit in a 20 foot square back yard