law The benefits of property registration
For most people and businesses the land and properties that they own are their most valuable assets. Land registration provides a secure way of noting an owner’s legal interest in land and provides additional safeguards and protection to landowners when compared to the old system of relying on hardcopy title deeds to evidence land ownership, writes Steph Richards, solicitor, Herrington Carmichael LLP
The requirement and ability to register property at the Land Registry has been in force in English law since 1925. However, a small but significant portion of land within England and Wales (up to 20%) remains unregistered. The Government issued a White Paper entitled “Fixing our broken housing market” on February 27, 2017 which, among various other matters, has set a goal of achieving comprehensive registration of land by 2030. So what is land registration and why is it important to landowners?
What is land registration?
Land registration means that details of the ownership of property, together with the rights and agreements concerning that land, are held on a central register administered by the Land Registry. The land registers are open to public inspection and easily accessible online or by application to the Land Registry. This replaces the old pre- registration system of relying on hardcopy historic deeds and documents used to evidence land ownership.
By storing land ownership records centrally, land registration seeks to protect the interests of landowners by providing a state-backed guarantee securing the title to the property. This means that should a landowner be deprived of the title to their property owing to an error or omission in the register, or because the register needs to be corrected, they will normally be compensated. Furthermore land registration helps landowners to protect their land from fraud and to resist third party applications for adverse possession (‘squatter’s rights’) over their land and property and also safeguards
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against the title deeds being lost, damaged or destroyed. The registration of land also offers landowners a quicker way of proving title to their property, which can help to speed up conveyancing transactions by increasing certainty and simplicity.
When must you apply to register land?
The compulsory requirement to register land has been rolled-out across England and Wales in stages, and now all transfers of land and the grant of new leasehold interests of over seven years are caught by the requirement to register, as are numerous other land transactions such as entering into a new mortgage over land. This does not limit owners of land from applying for registration of their property as applications for voluntary first registration can be submitted at any time prior to a transaction requiring mandatory registration of their property. In applying on a voluntary basis the cost of registration is reduced owing to preferable rates provided by the Land Registry and the owner will benefit from the protection of registration sooner.
In light of the advantages of registering your land and the Government’s stated intention to achieve comprehensive land registration in the next 13 years, we would advise landowners to consider investigating whether their land is registered and, if not, considering applying for registration.
If you want to find out more about registration of land, or any other real estate matter, contact the Herrington Carmichael’s real estate department.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – APRIL 2017
01276 686222 realestate@
herrington-carmichael.com
Steph Richards 01276 854929 steph.richards@
herrington-carmichael.com
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