Requests for the release of documents

Property Title Deeds

If you wish to retrieve original title deeds, please send the completed form to:

Greenwoods Legal LLP, Westpoint, Lynch Wood, Peterborough, PE2 6FZ or documentrelease@greenwoods.co.uk .

If you are collecting the deeds in person, you will need to provide two forms of identification – refer to ‘Identity Documents’ below.  If the property is owned by multiple people, each owner will need to comply with our identification requirements.

If you are not able to attend our offices and would like the title deeds to be sent via post, please send us certified copies of your identity documents together with the completed request form.  Please refer to the ‘Identity Documents’ section below for details of the documents we can accept and who can certify them.

Please note that if you are an executor(s) requesting title deeds, we will only release the originals once we have seen a court sealed copy of the grant of probate.  Similarly, for attorneys, we require proof of your authority to act i.e the registered financial decisions Power of Attorney document.

Wills – request by Client

To request your original Will(s), please send the completed form to:

Greenwoods Legal LLP, Westpoint, Lynch Wood, Peterborough, PE2 6FZ or documentrelease@greenwoods.co.uk .

If you are collecting your Will(s) in person, you will need to provide two forms of identification – refer to ‘Identity Documents’ below.

If you are not able to attend our offices and would like your original Will(s) to be sent via post, please send us certified copies of your identity documents together with the completed request form.  Please refer to the ‘Identity Documents’ section below for details of the documents we can accept and who can certify them.

If you wish to review or amend your Will, please contact our Wealth Preservation team: WealthPreservationAdmin@greenwoods.co.uk or call 01733 887700 to discuss your requirements.

Wills – request by Executor(s)

Executors can request an original Will from us upon death.  The process is the same as ‘Wills – request by Client’ above but the document release form must be signed by all executors.  You must also provide a registrar’s copy of the death certificate.  Each executor will also need to comply with our identification requirements.

If an executor has died, then we will need sight of their death certificate.  If you do not have the death certificate, then you can apply to the General Register Office for a copy.  The website for this service is www.gov.uk/order-copy-birth-death-marriage-certificate or from the appropriate local Register Office (i.e. the one where the death was registered).  This only applies if the executor died in the UK.

Wills – where our client has lost capacity

If our client has lost capacity, we will not disclose if we hold documents to a third party until we have received:

1. Two forms of identification both for our client and for you – refer to ‘Identity Documents’ below;
2. A copy of the registered financial decisions Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) or Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) which appoints you as an attorney; and
3. A letter from our client’s GP which confirms that our client has lost capacity.

If the EPA or LPA appoints you to act jointly (and not jointly and severally) with another person(s) then we will also require the above, and a letter of authority and identity documents from the other attorneys, in order to release any documentation.

Please note that if you are acting as attorney under an LPA or EPA but our client has not lost capacity, they will need to request their documents themselves, following the procedure under ‘Wills – request by Client’ above.

Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) and Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) documents

If you wish to request either photocopies, certified copies or the original documents, please follow the process under ‘Wills – request by Client’.

If you are acting as attorney for our client, please follow the process under ‘Wills – where our client has lost capacity’ (excluding point 2.)

There will be a fee for providing certified copies and we will contact you on receipt of your request to advise you further.

Identity Documents

Please provide two forms of identification.  Passport and photocard driving licence are our preferred documents but if you do not have one, or both, of these, please provide any of the following recent documents (dated within the last 3 months):

• utility bill
• council tax bill
• bank statement
• letter from HMRC, Department for Work and Pensions or other government agency confirming your name and address and dated within the last three months.

Any person who cannot attend one of our offices, should please send certified copies of their identity documents* with the initial request.  If you are unable to arrange for your documents to be certified, you may use our online ID checking system.

Postage

If you request for your documents to be posted, original documents will be sent either by Royal Mail Tracked or by courier and this will be done within 10 working days of receipt of the required information.  Depending on the size and weight of the documents requested, we may require you to pay the postage.  If this is the case, we will contact you on receipt of your request to advise you further.

Receipt

We will need you to sign a receipt to confirm that you have taken away an original if collected or acknowledge safe receipt if we post original documents out to you.

* Ideally your identity documents should be certified by a solicitor, barrister or accountant in order to verify their credentials. However, if this is not possible, full guidance relating to certifying documents can be located here.

To view this page as a PDF please click here.

To view the Document release request form please click here.