How Emerald can help

Do you know when your house was built? If not, this blog post is for you. The first step to finding out the date of construction is to figure out the age of your home. We can help you do this here and also give you some good tips on home ownership generally.

Introduction

Have you always wondered when your house was built? Perhaps you’re considering selling and want to get a ballpark idea of the property’s value. Or maybe you just want to know more about your home for fun. Regardless, knowing how old your house is can be fascinating!

The best way to find out the date that it was constructed is by checking construction records or looking at architectural details on the building itself. Even if those methods don’t work, there are some other ways to estimate how old a house is without too much hassle. In this blog we talk about using HM Land Registry who have copies of every title register (in the US, county record offices) to help. You will need to know this for your buildings insurance.

As we noted above, many homeowners are curious about when their house was built, although you will need this accurate data for many things to do with your house – for example planning permission will usually want to know when were properties built. This blog post will provide information on how to find out the answer as well as some interesting facts about home construction over time.

What went on before I was here?

The average person spends more than 90% of their life indoors, and for most people that space is their home. That’s why understanding your house history can be so fascinating! We’re here to help you figure out just when your house was built with this blog post on how to find out the date it was constructed and what has changed in home construction over time. Sometimes it can be a great journey of discovery, even if your house isn’t on the register of national historic assets or favoured by your local history society!

And in respect of insurance?

And now we get to the slightly more mundane…

When getting a home insurance quote you are likely to be asked “when was your house built?”

This is a mandatory question when getting house insurance because the age of the house reveals a lot about the property and has an impact on the premium you pay. Your property’s age is one of the key indicators of premium levels, and property age is a mandatory question on any home insurance journey. So, for example, Victorian houses (ie from the Victorian era) have amazing architecture with its large bay windows and parquet wood floors but are going to be more expensive to insure than a new build.

In a similar vein, as they are older, Georgian properties are older and so in a higher home insurance bracket than those from the Victorian era.

Of course, you can reduce that premium by shopping around. Why not get a quick quote from us today to see how we compare?

Start with the basics

It is generally the case that older properties use materials or techniques that are more expensive, and older properties may also need more expensive maintenance (and therefore risk that an owner doesn’t do that). So Edwardian properties look lovely, with their traditional features and wide bay windows but can cost more to maintain.

Also, with houses from that era or before, such as an Edwardian house, they can have three or more storeys because there were often separate servants quarters at the top. Fixing anything involves climbing a lot of stairs, which means more costs and therefore higher premiums, even if estate agents love to call those upper staircases ‘cute’!

Generally newer houses will be cheaper to insure because they are less likely to experience wear and tear, although some add-ons such as solar panels may not be covered by home insurance. Modern construction methods may also present less risk than historical approaches and more workmen are trained in modern standard techniques – so easier and quicker to find someone to fix your house in the case of any damage. It is also easier when there are several houses of the same style where materials can be manufactured in bulk (as with the garden estates around the UK)

Now the details

Home insurers are likely to have different views about the risk of when your house was built and so it’s worth shopping around. If you are unsure about the age of your house you can ask HM Land Registry, look in local archives, or at the same time if you are lucky then even the local history society or other local residents (with long local knowledge) to work out the chain of land ownership that leads today.

Most home insurers will also use bands of time as part of their pricing – so an exact date of 1963 could fall into a 20 year span of 1960 – 1980. So if you think in this example that your house was built around 1960, it’s worth checking to get the correct date, as a 1959 home could be 10% more expensive to insure than a 1960 one just in terms of home insurance. But most insurers will accept an approximate age if you really can’t track it down from your local council or with the land registry.

Therefore, if you can’t get the exact date then a best guess is likely okay (but don’t say that your Victorian family house was built in 1990 – fraud is still fraud!) but you may accidentally fall into a more expensive band with that guess. Ultimately the insurers bands are arbitrary but there are mostly around six or seven bands that each insurer will use, with slight variations.

If your property is listed then you may find fewer options with house insurance, or some insurers will deliberately load a premium to scare off cover that might present them with a higher risk. However at Emerald Life we are often able to provide listed building insurance as well as other difficult to insure properties such as non-standard construction materials, second and holiday homes and coach house insurance.

If your home was built a very long time ago, say, before 1800, then you may need a specialist insurer because of the special skills required to (re)build any damage, and also there are fewer underwriters who can correctly price that risk. But you can always try us here at Emerald.

How Do I Find Out When My House Was Built Online?

The Land Registry or your local authority is a good starting point when your house was built online. With the Land Registry you can find information about a property in England or Wales and understand how far its general boundaries extend and even whether it’s at risk of flooding. Also you may find more details in any survey that was done as part of a mortgage application or on a title register. If you have only recently bought the property, then the seller’s property information form will also show more details, and that seller’s property information form is a mandatory part of the sales process.

When Was My House Built? Other Ways to Find Out

If you are buying a house and are wisely buying buildings cover before exchange then you can ask your local estate agents to ask the seller when the property was built, although it is still your responsibility to check that the date is correct if you are making any declaration.

You might also be able to check your mortgage survey and other documentation completed for the sale.

A lengthier process could involve asking your local authority as they should have records of when planning permission was granted for the construction if the house was built more recently. However, bear in mind that occasionally records get lost in a local authority, particularly when records were transferred from microfiches to electronic files – so it’s not a perfect solution.

Older Houses

If you have an older house then there are other ways to find when your house was built as more information is publicly available. It is also likely your home will have more distinctive architectural features that could offer more clues such as exposed timber frames, hanging tiles, thatched roof, wooden plank floors or hanging tiles.

You can search the 1862 Act register on HM Land Registry’s digital archives. This was the Government’s first attempt at recording property ownership information other than census records. It contains information on 2,000 properties, which you can search for free. This is another way to find out when your property was built online, although you cannot search by address, so you may need some more historical information than you actually have.

Prior to this there was no single method of recording pretty owners and their holdings and so you may need to look more locally for the information, or even see if the papers held with your conveyancer include all the old deeds (which sometimes happens – and they often make for a very interesting read.

You could check historical editions of Ordnance Survey maps.

Historic England provides information on estimating the age of your property based on architectural style and features of the house, especially the roof and windows and the differing architectural style.

Look at census returns made at ten-year intervals between 1841 and 1911 to find a first mention of the address.

Going offline, apart from your home survey, you could check your local parish records, Historic England’s records, county record offices or your local library for local archives but that might only be for older properties.

Conclusion

If you’re like most homeowners, then the idea of your home’s age might not be at the forefront of your mind. But knowing when it was built is an important piece of information for anyone looking to buy or sell a house and with Emerald Home Insurance we can help with home insurance and much more!

We’ll make sure that you have coverage whether your building date falls before 1878, 1978 (or after) or if it has any unique features such as lead-based paint in its materials. Give us a call today so that we can provide this valuable service for you.

If you’re trying to determine when your home was built, there are a few ways that you can find this information. If you have the exact address or title number, you could contact the person who sold it to you and ask them for an approximate date or call up the city’s building department and see if they have any records of construction permits issued on the property in question. It might be difficult to get accurate data from these sources though since sometimes people aren’t entirely honest about their properties’ histories, particularly if there were housing defects.

The best way to tell how old your house is would be through analysing its architectural style, comparing it with other houses in your neighbourhood, looking at trends within different neighborhoods over time, finding a comprehensive historical map archive, local family history (even) or paying attention to historical events like a world war that may have caused significant changes in architecture styles throughout history, although a world war is a pretty material event – see how European architecture changed after the First World War and the Second World War.

How can I find out when my house was built for free?

Did you know that there are two ways to tell how old your old house is? One way, which many people use, is by looking at the address or talking to an estate agent or visiting a local library for parish records, or speaking to a local historian in the local area. The other way to determine when your home was built is by researching the date of its construction, its architectural style and then using it as an estimate for when it first became habitable (meaning someone could live in it).

Emerald can help you find out this information with both our research services and our residential insurance plans. Do you have any questions about either service?

When were UK houses built?

Early on, everyone could be a property developer as there was little concept of land ownership, but in the UK you can find houses from almost the last 1000 years. Nevertheless, there was an explosion of housebuilding starting in the Georgian and Victorian eras as many more people became property owners and from 1925 there was the start of a national title register.

FAQs

How can I find out when my house was built for free?

Did you know that there are two ways to tell how old your old house is? One way, which many people use, is by looking at the address or talking to an estate agent or visiting a local library for parish records, or speaking to a local historian in the local area. The other way to determine when your home was built is by researching the date of its construction, its architectural style and then using it as an estimate for when it first became habitable (meaning someone could live in it).

Emerald can help you find out this information with both our research services and our residential insurance plans. Do you have any questions about either service?

When were UK houses built?

Early on, everyone could be a property developer as there was little concept of land ownership, but in the UK you can find houses from almost the last 1000 years. Nevertheless there was an explosion of housebuilding starting in the Georgian and Victorian eras as many more people became property owners and from 1925 there was the start of a national title register.

Regulatory

Emerald Life has its registered office in England and Wales and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority FCA, firm reference number 666615 on the financial services register. It is registered as a limited company registered in England in Companies House with registered number available there and is directly regulated and authorised given its registered address and registered office in England.

Companies authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority can be found at the Financial Conduct Authority’s website – fca.org.uk – which deals with financial services.

Article summary: Land ownership/HM Land Registry/Title register/Home survey