How old is my property?

Why it’s important to know the age of your home

One major reason why it’s crucial to know the age of your home is that most buyers will want this information once they’re interested in purchasing the property. As a homeowner you want to be able to provide all the data that a buyer might seek in order to help making sure the sale happens.

Another reason why people will want to know is that, based on the age of a house, it might be a listed property. These are buildings granted a special status that puts certain prohibitions in place against making any alterations, extensions, or demolition work because of what is seen as the property’s historical, cultural, or other significant reason for protecting it. Because listed buildings can have very strong restrictions about what can, and cannot, be done to them, some homeowners might not want to buy a very old listed house that they cannot modify.

Regardless of whether your house or flat is a listed property, the age of the home will be a significant factor in whether certain buyers are interested in buying or not.

How to find out the age of your property

Thankfully, working out when your house or flat was built is relatively easy.

The starting point should always be to visit the website of the HM Land Registry, which is a non-ministerial department of the UK government overseeing the registration of home ownership throughout England and Wales. Although the HM Land Registry’s website can’t identify the specific date every building was erected, it often has enough information to help you find out the age of your home.

HM Land Registry can tell you who owns the land your house is on. If the person who developed the building was the one who sold it then it’s possible to deduce the property’s age by looking at the date of when the ownership was first transferred or leased from the developer.

If you can’t find the information you’re looking for through HM Land Registry, there are other potential ways that you might be able to secure this information.

For homeowners who have a mortgage on your house or flat, you should check your mortgage documents because these sometimes include the age of a property.

Another option that could work is to speak with your neighbours about the house because it’s possible that they might know the age of your home.

Yet another way that you can try to identify the age of your property is by visiting your local authority and asking whether they have any legal paperwork or other documents about your home. There’s a chance that these papers might identify when your home was built.