I've lost out on the chance to savour a slice of history

I've lost out on the chance to savour a slice of history

The only proof now needed that you legally own a property is the Land Registry's bland register of title. When mortgages came to an end, lenders were charging borrowers to be sent the old documents. If they didn't pay, some lenders destroyed the deeds. Today, they return deeds without charge to borrowers or their solicitors.

Your property was probably registered when you bought the house in 1995 with a Scarborough building society mortgage. You remortgaged in 2004 with A&L, which confirms that it never held the historical documents, only the Land Registry title entry. A&L had not destroyed the deeds.

Scarborough has confirmed that, when you remortgaged, it released the title deeds to First Title, the solicitor acting for A&L. It is confident that these were the old-fashioned documents. First Title says it would have forwarded any pre-registration documents to you when the remortgage was complete but you received nothing. The trail goes cold at First Title, which assumes that your deeds were.....continued below

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Some internet firms offer to produce old deeds. These are not copies of historical documents but deeds that have been scanned in by the Land Registry. The Land Registry has done this only for documents it received since a property was registered and only for paperwork that is relevant to the registration. You can order these more cheaply directly from the Land Registry at landregistry.gov.uk.

Nationwide staff failed to make international link

Before travelling to New York in May, I twice called Nationwide to let them know that I was planning to use my debit card abroad. I was told it was not necessary to notify them but, after making several purchases, my card was rejected. I phoned Nationwide at 5.15pm US east-coast time. I was told that I needed to speak to the special investigations department as it had frozen my account but that they closed at 5.30pm UK time - so I had missed them - and I should call back the next day. This account was my only source of cash and I had $45 remaining. I phoned the next day to be told that the department shut at noon on Saturdays and would not reopen until Tuesday as it was a bank holiday weekend.

I waited 30 minutes to speak to someone more senior before the line went dead. I now had only $5 left. I made one final call and luckily got through to someone who would unfreeze my card.JM, London

There is no point in an international department working office hours, and Nationwide apologises that you spoke to staff who did not realise that people are available 24 hours a day. They have been retrained and Nationwide has sent you £75.

Nationwide says it does not make a file note when customers are going abroad. The best advice is to make sure the bank has your mobile phone number so it can call if it becomes suspicious; take the bank's contact details with you; and carry more than one plastic card.