The Benefits Of Voluntary Registration

In her latest Conveyancing blog Timms Julie Stewart discusses the benefits of registering a property….

Historically, all land in England and Wales was unregistered.  Until the onset of typewriters and more recently computers, when a property was sold the solicitors would hand write the deeds of conveyance to transfer the property or land from the seller to the buyer.  Mortgages were prepared in a similar fashion and these legal documents would then form part of a chain of ownership covering many years.

In Days Gone By….

The documents themselves would set out important information including the price of the property, the parties to the deed, any rights conferred, restrictions affecting the property, easements and reservations against the land.  These documents are often quite lengthy and protracted and are often difficult to interpret by a layman.  This bundle of documents formed the title deeds and even today, the public believe that title deeds still consist of lengthy documents with wax seals and ribbons when in fact the system has substantially evolved.  The owner of the land would retain a bundle of documents and title deeds to prove their ownership of the property. This system was revised by the implementation of the Land Registration Act 1925.

Registration began in the London area initially and spread throughout England and Wales County by County over the years resulting in around 85% of all property in England and Wales now being registered with the Land Registry.  The remainder is known as “unregistered land”.   Unregistered does not mean the land has no owner it merely means that the land has not changed hands in recent times or dealt with in such a way as would trigger an application for first registration to occur.   Until as recently as the 1980’s a house in the UK in certain counties could still be purchased without the need to apply for first registration.

It wasn’t until the 1^st December 1990 that the registration of a property on purchase had to be accomplished and compulsory registration began in the hope that eventually all land in England and Wales would become registered.  The implementation of the Land Registration Act 2002 brought in more trigger events that meant that as well as on a purchase, other transactions required that the property had to be registered.  Such transactions as mortgages  deeds of assent  deeds of gift now had to be registered when the deed was completed.

Had it not been for these trigger events to result in registration, properties that had remained in the same family ownership over many years and passed from generation to generation would never had become registered until eventually a sale occurred.

Property Ownership In England & Wales

Registration of deeds is basically the official recording of property ownership in England and Wales. The information is kept on a central register and certain aspects of it are now available and accessible to the public.  On registration taking place, the Land Registry will collate all the relevant information that they need from the historic deeds and will then recite only the relevant information within three registers which form part of the registered title.

Land Registry & Voluntary First Registration

A house owner does not have to wait until a sale or trigger event occurs to apply for registration and can apply for voluntary first registration of their land at any time.  The Land Registry currently reduce the standard registration fee for applications of this type to encourage house owners to apply.  This application is entirely up to the house owner and some may decide not to incur the fee at present and leave the house unregistered until it has to be sold in the future.

It should be noted that the Land Registry fee for a voluntary application is based on the value of the property concerned and equally if your deeds are held in mortgage then they will not be released for this purpose without being held by a solicitor under strict terms.

With an unregistered title the only proof of ownership is held within a large bundle of deeds which, if lost, makes it extremely difficult to prove ownership or rectify the situation.

Unregistered Houses & Deceased Estates

It is a common occurrence when a house owner has passed away and executors are handling the sale of the deceased’s house to find that it is unregistered.  This may not cause an immediate problem but there are often occasions when vital documents of title, historic death certificates or probates cannot be located.  Equally second charges with third parties who are not high street lenders are often not receipted correctly upon redemption and this causes a major problem when the lender in question has long since disappeared.  Executors will have little or no information about the history of the property and lenders which the deceased may have been involved with many years ago.  These aspects are best addressed and dealt with when the house owner is still alive and able to assist by providing long forgotten personal information.

There are many solicitors who are reluctant to handle unregistered title or charge high fees for processing the extensive paperwork involved in dealing with a title of this type. Although it should not be the case, many conveyancing transactions involving unregistered land do take longer due to the time required to deduce the title, track down missing documents and for a buyer’s solicitor to review the paperwork carefully on behalf of his buyer client.

Why Should I Register My Property With The Land Registry?

People may wonder why they should be concerned to register their house at the Land Registry and why they should incur a cost which would in the future rest with a buyer.  There are many reasons and benefits in registration many of which bring peace of mind to the house owner as follows :

• unregistered land is at a higher risk of fraud. Fraudsters can assume your identity and attempt to sell or mortgage your property without your knowledge. Registration helps you to protect your property from fraud
• A title plan is issued which shows clearly the land in your ownership
• A title plan will show any areas where easements exist or rights of way or shared access are positioned
• The title register will show who owns the property and give a state-backed guarantee meaning that the state are guaranteeing that the legal estate is vested in the registered owner
• Registration protects against claims against your property
• Registration limits the possibility of losing title by adverse possession
• The title register clearly and concisely sets out the rights that benefit or affect the property
• Summarizes into a short document all of the information previously contained in many pages of unregistered title deeds by cutting out the information not relevant to the current ownership
• Prevents the need for retention of extensive title deeds in paper format thus reducing the risk of loss by damage fire or theft
• Provides an opportunity for any defects or lacking information to be dealt with without the urgency of an impending sale
• Immediate copies of registered titles are easily obtained from the Land Registry upon payment of a nominal fee.

At Timms we do recommend applications for voluntary first registration for many of the reasons listed above.

Our conveyancing team are able to assist with a voluntary first registration noting that there are legal fees involved as well as the Land Registry’s own registration fee which, as mentioned, is based upon the value of the property.

For further details, please feel free to contact me on freephone 0800 011 6666 or via email at legal@timms-law.com.

Julie Stewart
April 2021