When a house was built

[meathead]

Hi, my daughter has recently moved house and is interested in finding out how old the house is, is there anyway of finding this out?

Thankyou

[radstockjeff]

There is no easy answer to this one but I offer the following as a starting off point.
Firstly do you have any idea of the general age or period of the property.

For example any development after 1948 should be relatively easy to date as the Local Planning Authorities were obliged under the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 to keep a Register and a map showing all the development in their area.

Prior to this time you would possibly need to look at "styles" of houses to identify a date range, say 1930s Ribbon Development , or Edwardian villas, or Victorian terraces with their distinctive  design features.

Local Authority Conservation Teams in the Planning Depts might be a good place to start. But bear in mind that before 1948 the information base may not be very detailed particularly in the more rural districts, where much useful information has sometimes (often) been confined to the Corporation incinerator.

I know of one authority which did a systematic cull of the files, saving a "sample" of about 10% to be sent to the Local Archivist, the rest to the tip!

Good hunting.

[bearkat]

Looking for the house on old maps can be helpful.

There are some old Ordnance Survey maps here

https://maps.nls.uk/os/

and try

https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/

[meathead]

Thankyou

[Rosinish]

Firstly do you have any idea of the general age or period of the property.

Is the above info. not on her title deeds?
I know I have to tell my insurance company the yr my house was built?

Where in the world is the property?

Annie

[mckha489]

Where in the world is the property?

Annie

England I bet!  https://hmlandregistry.blog.gov.uk/2018/02/19/title-deeds/

“Generally, we only have the original title deeds when land or property is registered for the first time, as we need them to prepare the register. We create scanned copies of some deeds and then return all the original title deeds to whoever lodged them. This is usually the solicitor or conveyancer acting on behalf of the buyer.

So, if you’re trying to track down your original deeds, they could be with the solicitor who acted for you when you bought the property, or possibly with your mortgage company, if you have a mortgage.

If the property was already registered when you bought it, the seller may not have handed over the original deeds. There’s no requirement for them to do so. Tracing the original deeds for a property that has been bought and sold many times is likely to be an impossible task.”

[Rosinish]

I'm pretty sure there must be enough info. on the Deeds when someone buys a/any property which would give at least an approx. date of build?

I don't recall having to research when my property was built for the purpose of info. to my insurer?

Then again, I live in Scotland & property is in Scotland i.e. things may be different?

Annie

[Ruskie]

I understand that for privacy reasons you would not want to give the address, but if you could post a picture of the house we can give our opinions. Or .... if you are willing to send the address via PM I would be willing to have a look at the house on google maps and offer an opinion (if I can).  I understand completely if you don't wish to do this.

I believe there is a way to research a house via deeds but I think that there may be a cost involved.

[susieroe]

We only knew that our house was built between the wars. One day we had a plumber in and he asked how old it was. When Dad said he didn't know the exact date, the plumber looked closely at the bath taps. They had the date on them - 1922! It probably was on the deeds, but they were at the bank and I don't suppose Dad had looked for it.