What is the difference between unregistered and registered land

If land is unregistered, in the absence of personal knowledge, it can be hard to find out who owns it. There are no central records of ownership to search. Proof of ownership, or title, depends on being able to show a chain of ownership through deeds and other documents. A good root of title will be at least 15 years old and will usually include the conveyance to the current owner and to their predecessors. However, if there have been no recent sales, you may have to go back a lot longer than 15 years.

If you own unregistered land, it is very important to keep all the original deeds safe. The conveyancer acting for any prospective buyer or lender will need to examine them carefully to check your title and any other matters that may affect the property. Since it has been compulsory when buying unregistered land to apply to have the land registered within two months of a sale completing.

Other transactions which result in a change of ownership and trigger a requirement to register include gifts of land or assets by personal representatives. With some land in England and Wales having not changed hands for decades, there is still about 15 per cent of land that remains unregistered, with the highest proportion concentrated in rural areas and districts which were among the last to introduce an obligation to register unregistered land prior to it becoming compulsory nationwide.

Land owned by some companies, local authorities and trusts may also remain unregistered. If you own unregistered land, you should consider voluntarily applying for registration. Why not discuss this with your solicitor? The process is relatively straightforward.

There is also a 25 per cent reduction for voluntary first registrations. Registering your property now could save you time and expense in the long run and pre-empt issues in the future. Processing times for updating the registry generally takes 4 to 6 weeks. Do I need probate if I have power of attorney? How long does probate take if there is a will? When there is no Will, who is the personal representative? The difference between an executor and an administrator Legacies in wills and probate explained When does an executor have to pay beneficiaries?

What does the executor of a Will get paid? What does the probate registry do? Settling utility bills after the death of a loved one How a deed of variation can save time and money during probate How does probate work if the executor has died? Is Probate Needed for Tenants in Common? What Does the Administrator of an Estate Do? What Are Reasonable Expenses in Probate? Is Probate Required for Foreign Assets?

Can an Executor of an Estate Act Alone? Helping family abroad with probate service after death - case study Is Probate Needed for Premium Bonds?

What is a Section 27 Notice in Probate? Is there a Deadline to Complete Probate? Is Probate Needed to Sell a Property? What Are Interim Payments in Probate? What Happens when Joint Executors Disagree? Does Assisted Suicide impact Probate and Inheritance? What is the Forfeiture Rule in Probate? What does Power Reserved Mean in Probate? Strictly speaking, the title deeds are all the documents that constitute proof of the legal ownership of unregistered land and property. They also show past transfers of ownership through gifts, under wills and so on.

However, the vast majority of land in England and Wales is now registered. In December , it became compulsory in England and Wales to register land at HM Land Registry on completion of a transaction, such as a sale and purchase. If the land is registered, the title deeds comprise the Official Copies of the registered title, the Title Plan, and any documents referred to in the register, such as an old conveyance.

These additional title deeds will usually be available at the Land Registry. The Land Registry keeps a formal record of the legal title to a property in the Title Plan, together with three different registers, namely:.

The plan shows the boundaries to the property, and any other information that helps identify the legal title to the property. This defines and describes the property, the address, and the rights benefiting the property such as any rights of way, a lease, and other positive rights attached to this property.

They may be lost or accidentally destroyed making proving title to the land difficult. It may be just some of the title deeds are missing which can cause issues with identifying the appropriate rights or even the extent of land, leading to an investigation as to where these may be. They should of course be with the current owner but potentially could still be held by the previous one, or a multitude of local authorities who, at some point, have had interest in that parcel of land. Henceforth, you could suddenly find yourself attempting to track down a church legacy charge from the 16th century yes, this has really happened to someone!

The UK government currently faces one of its biggest housing shortfalls on record, with a backlog of approximately 4million homes. According to experts, to meet this demand, authorities must build around , homes a year until Knowing how much land there is available to build upon will, of course, make things much easier.

The Land Registry essentially acts as a giant database of land ownership, making the process of looking up who owns what much more streamlined for conveyancers, building authorities, and members of the public alike. Until such point as all land is registered the two systems of conveyancing will continue to run along side each other. The answer to this is, unhelpfully, yes and no.