The Vanishing Art of Land Registry First Registrations

The Land Registry calculates that 14% of freehold land in England and Wales is still unregistered land. Is yours?

If not, why should you consider a voluntary first registration?

• - Primarily, it is proof of ownership of the property as a whole (not precise boundaries)
• - A future transaction (eg sale or mortgage) will be easier, smoother and therefore likely to be cheaper. This is not least because many younger property lawyers may never have seen an unregistered title before!
• - Registration can help to protect you from fraud. Not only does the Land Registry require solid ID checks for all transactions, they have a property alert system if you are concerned about a property eg. a second home or the home of a vulnerable person (https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk/)
• - It means you no longer have to hold on to that box full of dusty old documents.

In recent years I have come across three significant parcels of unregistered land. The owners simply had not experienced a trigger event since their area became compulsory. However, in all 3 cases, the title deeds had been lost or mislaid and the lack of deeds or registration delayed the primary transaction.

Lost title deeds

This is a very real problem. Once title is registered there is literally nothing the owner needs to retain in order to prove title. There MAY be other documents which still should be kept, so don’t throw everything in the shredder, but at least your ownership is registered.

If the deeds are genuinely lost and cannot be tracked down to a former law firm’s deeds safe, a bottom drawer or a bank, it may be possible to reconstruct your title from third party sources. However this can be costly and the title allocated by the Land Registry will likely have protective entries showing that there may be unknown restrictions affecting the title. In turn this may impact your ownership.

Boundaries

As mentioned above, the Land Registry does not guarantee exact boundaries. Their filed plans are based on Ordnance Survey maps, not measurements. There is a margin of error just in the thickness of lines at various scales on such maps. If you are uncertain as to your boundaries there are procedures, and Bexley Beaumont has a number of boundary dispute experts on hand to assist.

In addition to parcels of land which have not yet triggered compulsory first registration, it is not uncommon for unregistered land to have been accidentally incorporated into your “ownership” eg. by inaccurate fencing. The result is that the owner may have obtained title through adverse possession. In some cases this possession can be formalised at the Land Registry.

Registration

Where deeds are available, the lawyer must locate the Good Root of Title to show the chain of ownership and carefully check through the available documents to ensure that the correct and accurate historical rights and restrictions are disclosed so that they become part of the register entries. In its bid to achieve “comprehensive registration by 2030”, the Land Registry has widened the triggers for compulsory first registration to include mortgages, death of a sole proprietor or appointment of a new trustee. They are also working with local government and other public bodies to increase their registered titles.

If you are not sure if your title is registered or not there you can check on https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry (beware of imitations which cost a lot more).

If you have a box of old title documents you do not know what to do with or if you have an important transaction in mind and what to check your title is clear before you start the process, Bexley Beaumont can help.

Please contact Emily to discuss any of the above further emilycarey@bexleybeaumont.com  |  07300 927480