The Deed Is Done

Conveyancers have probably noticed that Abbey National and Royal Bank of Scotland, to name two, have recently announced that they will no longer acknowledge receipt of title deeds submitted to them after registration of mortgages.

Abbey National, however, has stated that it will not accept responsibility for deeds sent until they are actually received.

It says that if solicitors do not hear from the Abbey within 12 weeks of sending the deeds it can be assumed that they have been received safely.

This is all very well.

However, some time ago we sent a packet of deeds to Abbey National at a time when it did acknowledge receipt.

After a while I rang for an acknowledgment, to be told that the Abbey had no record of receiving the deeds.

We therefore had to go to the trouble and expense of replacing these.

It seems a bit unreasonable that we have to wait 12 weeks before being able to relax every time we send title deeds to lenders.

The Abbey also stated recently that most lenders will shortly be making a similar announcement.

Can the Law Society not make representations to the Council of Mortgage Lenders about this? We have even been sending a stamped addressed envelope for a receipted schedule but this will now be ignored.

We are going to have to consider sending deeds by recorded delivery in future.

RS Ainsworth, licensed conveyancer, Donns solicitors, Manchester