Historic deeds to a property can be valuable

SIR – A solicitor told us that the original documents (Letters, April 12) for the 999-year head lease for the land our property stands on had been sold.

The owner now lives in Australia and could get more for the historical documents than he could from the ground rent. Not that this prevents the holder of the sublease from collecting the modest ground rent annually.

Littleborough, Lancashire

SIR – When I was in practice, our firm, with the consent of the client, arranged for pre-registration deeds to be collected by the Hampshire Record Office, subject to a right of recall.

There was a time when it was impossible to register “profits a prendre in gross” – rights to take something from another person’s land – and it was necessary to retain deeds to prove title to such rights.

I recall a situation where land together with fishing rights existed on one bank of the river Itchen but only fishing rights on the other bank. It was only possible to register the land and fishing rights on that one side. So it was vital to retain the deeds to prove fishing rights on the other bank. Richard F A Strother

Southampton

SIR – I have spent my working life dealing with property conveyancing and believe all pre-registration deeds should be retained.

They contain valuable historical information, about rights of way, for example. Disputes on these often lead to very expensive litigation in the absence of any other information.

It may be worth Paul Berry’s while (Letters, April 10) to ask the solicitors who dealt with his purchase, as they might have retained the deeds in his old file or their storage system.

Canterbury, Kent