Title Deeds vs Title Register — What Is the Difference?

Two records, one property

People use "the deeds" and "the title register" almost interchangeably, but they are different things from different eras. The deeds are the paper trail a property accumulated before registration; the register is the single current record HM Land Registry maintains once the property is registered.

Knowing which one you actually need saves time and money, because for most properties the answer today is the register.

The differences at a glance

| | Title deeds | Title register | | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | A bundle of historic paper documents (conveyances, transfers, mortgages, plans) | The current registered record for a title, kept by HM Land Registry | | How ownership is proved | By tracing an unbroken chain of documents through past owners | By the entry naming the registered proprietor | | Format | Original papers, often decades old | A structured document in three parts, read with the title plan | | What happens if lost | Serious for unregistered land; irrelevant to ownership of registered land | Cannot be "lost" — copies can be obtained at any time | | Who holds it | Owners, solicitors, former lenders — or nobody | HM Land Registry | | How current it is | Frozen at the date of each document | Updated as changes are registered |

What replaced what

When a property is registered for the first time, HM Land Registry examines the deeds and distils them into the register: the current owner goes into the proprietorship register, the description of the land and its benefiting rights into the property register, and mortgages, covenants and other burdens into the charges register. A title plan is prepared showing the general extent of the land.

From that point on, the register is the record. Later sales, mortgages and other dealings are registered rather than added to a paper bundle, and the old deeds usually stop having day-to-day legal significance.

When the old deeds still matter

There are three situations where paper deeds keep real value:

1. Unregistered land. If the property has never been registered, the deeds are the proof of ownership. They should be kept safe, and voluntary first registration is usually worth discussing with a solicitor.
2. Detail behind register entries. The register often refers to a deed rather than reproducing it — "subject to the covenants contained in a Conveyance dated 3 May 1935", for example. The full wording is in the deed itself, which may be available as a filed document.
3. Historical questions and disputes. Boundary disagreements, rights of way and questions about how land was divided can turn on what an original deed said or showed on its plan.

"We've lost the deeds" — the practical answer

For a registered property, lost deeds are a non-problem dressed up as a crisis. Ownership does not depend on the paper, so the practical steps are short:

1. Confirm the property is registered (most residential property is).
2. Obtain a current copy of the title register and title plan.
3. If the register refers to an older deed you need in full, order that filed document where a copy is held.
4. Only if the property turns out to be unregistered, involve a solicitor to look at first registration based on whatever evidence survives.

Getting the documents

You can order the title register and title plan together through our service: we check the address by hand, identify the registered title — contacting you first if more than one title could match — and deliver the PDFs by secure link. We are an independent document retrieval service, not HM Land Registry, and buying directly from HM Land Registry usually costs less; our fee covers the manual checking, retrieval and support.

This article is general information, not legal advice. If a dispute or an unregistered title is involved, a conveyancer or solicitor should look at the specific documents.