Deeds are paper documents which show the chain of ownership of a land or property. Every time a home is bought and sold, the deeds are changed to reflect new ownership. The Land Registry scans the original documents on registration and sends them back to you or your conveyancer. Your conveyancer will then either send the originals or copies directly to you or to your mortgage provider, who will return them to you when the mortgage is paid off.
If you have a house you are looking to sell but cannot find the deeds for whatever reason, the yes you can still sell your house, however you must be able to prove ownership through other means. Deeds are the assortment of documents which usually prove ownership of a property and without them it can be a lengthy process, but it is by no means impossible.
Alternative ways of proving ownership
The first course of action will be to check if the property is registered with the Land Register. If this is the case, then they will have copies of all the documents of the deeds and will be able to provide you with the required documents. Registering a property has been compulsory since 1990, so if the house has exchanged hands in the past 30 years, this route is almost a guaranteed path to success.
However, if your property is not registered with the Land Register, things get more complicated. Your first port of call would be to find another copy of the deeds. Possible places to check would be with your mortgage provider, solicitors or contracted conveyancer used at the time of the last sale.