How to Find Out When a House Was Built

Introduction: -  If you just settled in a new home and realise that it has a different architecture than the rest of the houses in your neighbourhood, it may spark interest, and you may want to know when my house was built. Sometimes we need to sell our home or buy a new home due to personal circumstances like we are not willing to pay rent and want to own a home ourselves.

• The interest rate is low, and we could afford a new loan.

• It is more expensive to live on rent than to buy. 

• The government offered new tax benefits to homebuyers, and we want to purchase to benefit through the scheme. 

• We have a home, but we need to move into another house due to a change in location for higher education, change in career, marital status, or family expansion. 

• We want to sell the home we live in and move to another house to profit from the sale of our previous home.

If we are planning to buy another home, we need to search for the desired home, and when we go for a home purchase, we need to know the time of house construction and related building construction details.

We require information due to the following reasons:-

1. Knowing the exact year of construction is essential as it can affect the house's value.

2. The exact construction date determines the home's strength and vulnerability. A buyer understands the indoor and outdoor strengths of the home. However, long years of use make the home vulnerable to natural calamities like earthquakes, heavy wind, storms and cyclones.

3. It is very dangerous to live in a very old house so we must know how old is my house. However, if the house is well maintained and good repair work is taken at various intervals, it reduces such risks.

4. The construction year helps estimate the expenses for repairs and renovations. You may want to know the age of your home to get building insurance or to find out if it is hazardous to live in it.

5. You may have to conduct a safety test for any house older than 50 years. Older houses more than 100 years require safety inspection twice annually. 

When Was My House Built? 

An old, historically valuable house is often recorded on the National Heritage List (England or Wales). If you suspect the house is old and want to know When was my house built, check if your home is on the heritage list. You can gather a lot of information - every little bit from the start, to precisely deduce the age of your property. 

You can check the HM registry that holds the land ownership records. In addition, you might want to reach out to get an extensive report of your house's history( for about £7). 

If the developer who constructed the building was the one who first sold the property, you could determine the age by checking the date when the first transfer of ownership or the first lease was recorded in the registry.

For older buildings (like those older than 1862), you can search in the list of over 2K properties recorded in the 1862 Act register. In the case of certain other types of properties, you can consult census returns between 1841 and 1911 at 10-year intervals to determine if your address pops up first. 

You can go through the local archives like county record offices and parish records to know more.

The architectural design, wall colour, plaster of the wall, and exterior designs hint towards the construction year.

One can correlate certain architectural tendencies to certain eras in every country and every location. By looking at the design, and physical structure, you get a rough idea about the construction year.

Information about some of the homes is provided on the internet. Online you can seek information by clicking on certain links. In addition, you may get some important information online by visiting the official websites of the land records. 

Check the details on the map records if you are buying a house. Many prospective buyer and seller share their feedback and reviews on various websites. The internet is a storehouse of data, and you can get the necessary information there.

How to Find the History of a Property Online?

Online is a great repository of all sorts of information. It works more like knowledge and sharing based on data created, liked, disliked, and shared by various users. Government and the people ensure that their land records are correct and uploaded to the online directory. 

In case you want to know the year the property was built, here is a guide to find out when house was built – 

1. Obtain the exact address of your house, and it must include the city name, state name and local address. Certain community libraries hold local history records, historical maps, and pictures of old building plans. 

2. You can go through old newspapers published around when the home was built to get a mention of your house address in such places. 

3. Search the record number, plot number and such details on the website and submit to know all the related details.

4. You can get some basic details about the place from the land record authority of the city. 

5. A building permit is required for restructuring, remodelling and construction. You can go through the building permit records.

You can inspect the house to ensure houses are built to a standard, and building permits can give you certain useful information about the age and previous repairs on your house.

Besides the steps mentioned above, you can obtain the record from some third party application or the service provider.

How HM Land Registry can help?

HM land registers provide an authentic way to get property information in England and Wales. Anyone or prospective buyer may seek information from the HM land registry by paying the fees for Title Register, Title Plan and Records with Various Indicators. The records obtained through the HM land registry can be very reliable, and even the court accepts the documents as valid proof. 

Since 1993, it has been assisting various stakeholders in the real estate business. You can contact them at the physical address in the city of Gloucester, Great Britain or pay a visit to the office, pay the fee and seek the required records. 

How old is My House with the Land Registry? 

To get reliable and authentic land records, you must seek records from the Land registry. Such documents help in buying and selling, and it also helps if you want to know when was my house built land registry. 

As an agent, when you approach a prospective buyer with documents from the land registry, they trust your proposal more than the others. A third-party provider can also supply you with the required documents, but it is not considered trustworthy in certain situations. 

Tips to Determine the Age of Your Home

• At the time of buying, the building insurer may want to know the age of your house. The age of a house is needed to estimate the property's value, and it gives you an idea about the cost you may have to incur on maintenance and repair. There are several ways to find out the age of your house.

• When buying, it's important to know all the related information about the house like the age, year of build, the previous owners, earlier refurbishment details and the dates when changes were made in the design of the house. 

• An old house may require a thorough assessment to get an estimate. In addition, you may have to confirm the built date of your possession to get insurance. 

• If your house comes under the heritage building category – it may have significant historical and market value. If the house is newly built and you want to sell it, you may contact agents and friends and tell them the details of the house. Moreover, if you want to purchase a building, you may have to contact the builder or real estate firm offering such properties. 

• If you are applying for a house mortgage, you may be asked to submit the documents related to the property and get an assessment of the value of the house. HM Land Registry maintains all the records of property possession. And if the building architect did not sell the estate, you may find out its estimated age by using the first date of transfer of the property to another person's name. 

• If someone is going to buy a newly built house, they should ask the salesperson about the date of construction and details related to the previous owners. The information would reveal the age of the house. 

How to Lookup Year House was Built?

Many who own or are interested in buying an old house may want to know When was my house built. Sometimes, the look of a house misleads the customers. You can use some methods to find out the age of your house –

1. You can search for the records related to your postcode to find out the age of your house. 

2. Check the Old Maps website, where you may find out when your flat was built. The website may include every officially documented map in the UK, showing where the house appears. 

3. Visit the official website of the land record authority by putting some relevant keywords in the search bar of the search engine. 

4. Look for the land records section on the website. HM Land Registry helps buyers know when the property was built or first registered. It provides you with historical evidence about the properties and gives access to the record of the registers.

5. Reach out to your area's historical society, which may hold information about construction years for structures in your neighbourhood.

6. One of the simplest ways is to talk to neighbours who may know about the house's history, especially if they live in a home with a similar architectural design in the neighbourhood.

7. Check all the tax records of your property; though it does not guarantee to get you all information, it is worth considering. If all the records are carefully maintained, they contain the name of all the previous owners of your property. It also includes all the records of the previous assessments made on your property every year. Also, check if there has been any sudden change in the valuation. For example, it may indicate the construction of a house (probably yours) or a kind of renovation.

8. Check the architecture. The buildings built by the same architect in certain eras are always of the same types. So you need to look at the architecture, design, brickworks, technique, and other home attributes.

How Do I Register My New House Address?

For registering your house with a new address, follow the procedure given below- 

• If you are constructing a new house or renovating a prevailing estate into apartments, you should apply for a house number or street name. You need to check the location plan and get approval for the building development plan. 

• You may have to apply to your local council to register your details. Although there is national guidance, the local authorities have their regulations and formats to approve, so it's best to check their website.

• Some councils encourage references to local historical heritage and natural landscape features. Some want the applicant to use their street naming team for advice. 

• You'll then need to complete the suitable form, which may require your top three suggested names so that the council can have a choice.

• The best time to apply is as soon as possible after achieving planning permission. Council fees vary from zero to almost £100, but most are around the £40 or £50 mark.

• If your address is not registered on Royal Mail's database, you may want to register your address officially. You may have to submit your proposals for naming and numbering within one month of receipt of your Building Warrant consent. It makes certain postcodes and addresses are allocated well in advance of the occupation of a property.

• They check your proposed house name or number to confirm no duplication within the surrounding area.

• Sometimes, an existing property that is not registered with Royal Mail in the past may still receive a postal delivery to that address. If it is the case, you may have difficulties purchasing goods or services from third parties, and so you may have to apply to modify the status.

Conclusion: - When buying or selling a house, you can easily find out the period, the time, and other information by asking the neighbours who live in identical estates, and you can also ask your neighbours when the house was built in the UK. 

But in case you have already shifted and want to know the age of the house, you can check the land record databases and land registry details to find out the date of construction and records related to previous owners. The construction time will always be in the records, but some historical sites or buildings of previous eras may not have accurate details. 

People may find it difficult to get details if the house is more than 50 years old. And in case the age of your home is more than a hundred years old, you may have to check historical records related to heritage sites to find out its value.