Land registration

eggheadnappa

Hi. Im in the process of buying a house and the solicitor is asking for an extra £100, as the property is not registered with the land registration (built 1960). Is it common for a property of this age not to be registered and is this a fair cost? Thanks

m_13

I think there are a lot of unregistered properties and land in the UK. £100 sounds like a fair cost for the extra work involved which does involve plans etc to identify the land.

Do you have deeds for the property which identify the boundaries?

eggheadnappa

I've got the complete HIP pack which show's boundaires to the property, does that help me atall?

m_13

That's odd! Where has that come from! Are there are any land registry documents in the HIP? Are there any stamps on the boundary page to show where it has come from?

eggheadnappa

No land registration doc'sor stamp's but there is a company name on it.

m_13

I wonder how the HIP person got the plan. Did it come from you?

I'm guessing your property just wasn't registered - Wikipedia says that in 1963 the Land Registry registered their 2 millionth title and in 2009 they are still under 50% of all properties and land in the UK!

Land Registry is currently encouraging property owners whose property is currently not registered to make a voluntary application for registration. Although there are over 20,000,000 registered properties in England and Wales, only just over half of the land mass is registered. Much of this land is rural property in the hands of large institutional landowners such as the Church, educational institutions and the Crown. Registration of land under the Land Registration Act 2002 affords property owners some protection against squatters as well as avoiding the need to produce old documents each time a property changes hands.

They are aiming for all land being registered by 2012 so you will be helping them with their target, lol.

tyllwyd

I think land registration came in relatively recently, so if your property hasn't changed hands for a while it might easily not be registered. I think £100 might be the Land Regsitry's own fee - haven't got time to look at it properly myself, but you could look at this
http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/assets/library/documents/rrgreg.pdf

eggheadnappa

No not from me the estate agent gave it me.

Right so il be helping them but it'l cost ME £100!?

They only want to know who own's it so they can tax you for it!

m_13

Perhaps and it is true that many solicitors are unhappy with the new electronic system with titles rather than using deeds but it does make it easier to transfer property and to find out who owns it.

tyllwyd

eggheadnappa wrote: »

I've got the complete HIP pack which show's boundaires to the property, does that help me atall?

I'd expect that the boundaries to the property are shown on the deeds, and a copy of that has been included in the HIP pack.

david29dpo

Unregistered properties have to have an epitome of title to replace to title register in the HIP. A SIM (search of the index map) replaces the title plan.