When people say "the title deeds" they usually mean one of three things HM Land Registry hold for a registered property. Each answers a different question, and they are sold separately, so it helps to know which you need.
The title register
The register is the record itself, in three parts. The property register (A) describes the land, says whether it is freehold or leasehold, and lists rights that go with it, such as a right of way. The proprietorship register (B) names the owner, gives the class of title, shows the price paid where the land last sold for money on or after 1 April 2000, and carries any restriction on selling. The charges register (C) carries what burdens the land: covenants, rights others have over it, and mortgages. Entries that refer to a deed, with the note "copy filed", tell you a document is held and can be sent.
The title plan
The plan shows the land in the title edged in red on an Ordnance Survey base, usually at 1:1250 in a town and 1:2500 in the country. Its boundaries are general boundaries: the red line shows roughly where the boundary runs, not the exact line, and the plan rarely says who keeps up a fence: a T mark carried over from a deed the register refers to is the exception.
The filed documents
These are the deeds the register refers to and HM Land Registry hold a copy of: a conveyance from when the land was first sold off, a transfer, a lease, a charge. They carry the exact words behind a covenant, a right of way, a fencing duty or a lease term, where the register only summarises. They are scans of the original, from the year on them, sent as they are held. Not every deed mentioned on a register is held: an entry without "copy filed" is unlikely to be available, and HM Land Registry hold no original deeds, only copies of those marked as filed.
Which to order
- To know who owns it, what it sold for, and what binds it: the title register.
- To see the extent of the land: the title plan, best with the register.
- To read the words behind a covenant, a right of way, a fencing duty or a lease: the deed or lease, best with the register that refers to it.
- The register, the plan and the documents the register refers to that can be sent, up to 4 of them in one order: register, plan and deeds.
In a Homeproof certificate each document is bought from HM Land Registry when you order it, read in and explained, and kept with the free check of the public registers, so the whole picture of the address is in one place.