When Was My House Built? How To Check Property Age

There are a few ways of finding out the year that your house was built, including reading the title deeds, checking the survey documents, or searching for your house in the HM Land Registry. When you first purchased the property, you should have been given the title deeds as proof of ownership. These will contain part information about the property including the year it was built. If you do not have the title deeds for some reason, you can get them from the HM Land Registry website – start by entering the postcode and selecting the address. You can view documents including title deeds plus any easements or restrictive covenants online, and download a copy for £3.

Sometimes, the HM Land Registry will not have the exact year of construction and may give an approximate range like ‘built between 1930 -1949’ or not list any dates at all. If this is the case for your house, you can contact your local authority to find out more. They often hold information about property in the local area including planning permission documents, which could include the year of construction for your home.

If you are in the process of buying a property, the year it was built should be easy to find out. Check the home survey and mortgage offer which should include the age of the property. You could also ask the seller or their agent if they know the year of construction.

If the property is very old, i.e. built pre-1850, the age of the house and other details may not be so readily available. In this case, you can look for it in your local archives or local library. They will hold information such as old parish records, ordnance survey maps and country office records which can help you determine the age of your house. If there are no archival records available in your local area, you can look online at the National Archives. You can also check the 1862 Land Act Register, which was the UK Government’s first attempt at recording information about property ownership. 

FAQ: What is a restrictive covenant?

A restrictive covenant is a binding condition included in a property’s title deeds that stipulates what a future homeowner can or cannot do with the property. They usually define things like preventing future owners from altering the property e.g. turning a larger house into flats, the type of animals allowed to be kept on the property e.g. no farm animals on a residential property, and preventing the property from being used as a business premises.

FAQ: What does easement mean?

Easements are certain rights that a person can have over land belonging to someone else, e.g. accessing the land as part of a public footpath or installing and maintaining service conduits like power lines, phone lines, supply pipes and drains.