SL Property Law

What is it?

Unregistered Land, is simply land that has not yet been registered at the electronic register held by the Land Registry. There is a common misconception that unregistered land is ‘not owned’, this is not true. It is still possible to be the legal owner of land even if it is not yet registered.

When does Registration of Land happen?

Section 4 of the Land Registration Act 2002 specifies the events that trigger compulsory registration. These include sales, inheritance and grants of first mortgages, this means that the proportion of land unregistered is decreasing every year as houses are sold.

You do not have to wait until one of these ‘trigger events’ occurs. If you own a piece of registered land, you can apply to register it at any time and the Land Registry offer reduced registration fees for ‘voluntary registrations’ of this nature.

Why should I register my Land?

Registration of Land at the Land Registry, protects properties against fraud and offers security of title, making it more difficult for some-one to adversely possess and claim your land for their own.

The Land Registry also indemnifies owners of registered land against any loss if they are deprived of their title or for errors included within the title that result in a loss to the owner.

When selling or purchasing a property the conveyancing process is simpler and often cheaper for both parties.

Generally, it can be easier to borrow against registered land as the lenders can see exactly what their security is.

How will unregistered land affect my sale/purchase?

For unregistered land, there will be a large bundle of deeds for the solicitors to read through and sort which will undoubtedly take them extra time than reading a register of title, this is likely to result in an additional fee being paid to the solicitor or conveyancer handling the matter for both the buyer and seller.

There is also a greater risk of discrepancies with plans not accurately reflecting the boundaries on the ground as the plans in deeds are often of poor quality, not on an ordnance survey map and sometimes missing all together. To overcome this the seller might need to commission a surveyor to visit the property and prepare a land registry compliant plan to bring some certainty to the transaction, which will be an additional cost.

As mentioned above, the Land Registry charge higher fees for dealing with unregistered land, this is an additional cost to the buyer.

A bundle of deeds hidden away in your home, or in a bank that is no longer on the high street or at a solicitor’s office but no-one can remember which can result in some deeds going missing, maybe just one affecting the title, maybe the whole bundle, which can also add additional complexes and costs to a transaction, which your conveyancer will explain to you at the time.

Conclusion

Title held of unregistered land is legal, it can take a little longer to prove, depending on where and who holds the deeds and can add complexities and costs to a conveyancing process.

Unregistered land can also make you vulnerable to fraudsters, or people claiming adverse possession of your land, particularly if you don’t live on the land in question or own large parcels of land that have no mortgages on.

If you own unregistered land and want to discuss the process for registering this or the benefits of doing so, please contact us and we will be more than happy to discuss this with you.