HM Land Registry: is your property registered?

In case you are registering your land for the first ever time, you need to do the following for a foolproof registration:

1. Your first step should be to check the online register of Land Registry to ensure that your land is not registered under any owner previously. In case, your land has not been registered before, you can start with the required paperwork for the registration. However, in case you land has been registered before under a different owner, you would need to transfer the ownership on your name, with the consent of previous owner. However, if you want to transfer your land or property into another person’s name, or if you want to add your partner as a joint owner, in this case, you need to update HM Land Registry about your decision and submit required documents.
2. For the first time registration of your land, you would have to submit First Registration form and prepare an outline of your land as per deeds of the document. However, if you have bought your land from someone else, in this case you have to submit Transfer of Whole of Registered Title(s). along with First Registration songs.
3. For the first time registration of your land, you have to submit certain documents depending on your circumstances like value and location of the property etc to the Land Registry.
4. For every registration, you need to pay certain registration fees to the Land Registry, which at times depends on the value of your property.
5. Once you are ready with all the above required documents, you need to send the documents with the fees to the Land Registry by post.

In case you wish to transfer the ownership of your property to another person’s name or if you want to add another person as a joint owner of your property, you need to inform HM Land Registry about your decision and submit following documents for it to change the ownership and other details in the register:

1. You need to fill in an application to change the register with the new owner/joint owner details. This form need to be downloaded from www.gov.uk website and sent to the Land Registry by post along with other documents, if any.
2. In case you are transferring your whole property, you need to fill in Transfer of Whole of Registered Title Form and in case you are transferring only a part of your property, you need to fill in a Transfer of Part of Registered Title and submit the same with Land Registry.
3. Along with either of above documents, you would be required to submit certificate of identity for a private individual.
4. Once you have filled the documents and the forms, you need to post these forms with the required fees.

When a land is registered with the Land Registry, it allocates a unique title number to each land registered under it and add it to it database. There are two basic documents which are registered under each title number:

• Register of Title: This document has a brief description of the land, then name of the owner and description/details of his nature of rights over the land like in which manner he can use the land etc.
• Title Plan: This document defines the boundaries of the land for the better understanding of how much the registered proprietor owns. However, in vast majority of cases, it shows general i.e. approximate boundaries.

In case, if the owner decides to sell a part/piece of a registered land, document known as Transfer of Part document is signed by the seller, which has to be submitted at the Land Registry and it has a plan of the land being sold off. When the transfer of part document is submitted at the Land Registry, it will then create a new Register of Title and Title Plan with a new title number for the land which is sold off. In addition to this, Land Registry will also amend the existing Register of Title and Title Plan for the land in picture. Amended Register of Title and Title Plan will show the reduced area of land with new general boundaries. Process of land registry takes approx 2 weeks to 2 months, depending on how busy they are.

Transfer of part document must be filed under each title number and it is updated in the online database of Land Registry so that if anyone wants to obtain an official copy of it, can do so by paying nominal fees to the Land Registry.

You can obtain your copy of the Register of Title and Title Plan for any title number by filling Official Copies (OC1) and sending it to the Land Registry by post. Land Registry does not allow online submission of this form by the individuals; however, you can use services of authorized third parties and submit your form online through them.

The proposal to privatise the 150 year old agency was proposed by the Treasury under the former chancellor George Osborne as a part of £5bn programme. However, the idea to privatise the body which has record the ownership of the properties in UK ever since 1862 was not welcomed by the citizens and as a result of which it was quietly postponed by the government.

One of the major arguments against privatisation of Land Registry was from Public and Commercial Services Union and the words of Mark Serwotka, who was also the general secretary of the union were:

“Homebuyers and owners rely on the Land Registry to provide an impartial professional service and it must remain under public control, free from any profit motive and conflict of interest.

Land Registry, being a public and non-profit organization, employs more than 4,500 civil servants and holds more than 24 million titles for the properties across England and Wales and it was a common feeling that the privatization of approx 150 year old organization will have long-term consequences in terms of losing its credibility amongst its registered users who place a great amount of confidence and trust in it. Although government proposed various plans to privatise the organization, but all of them were met with concerns such as increase in usage charges and the luxury to access some of the data free of cost might not be there.