Can anyone explain the register of title

skycrazy

Hi, I'm in the process of buying a house and I'd like clarification on what some parts of the title mean to make sure I don't fall into any pitfalls.

In the Property Register section of the register of title from land registry it says:

The mines and minerals are excepted.

The land has the benefit of the rights granted by but is
subject to the rights reserved by the of the rights granted by but is
subject to the rights reserved by the Transfer dated xxxxxx
referred to in the Charges Register

The Transfer dated xxxxx referred to above contains
provisions as to light or air and boundary structures.


Could you explain those for me. And also, what these from the proprietorship register mean:

The Transfer to the proprietor contains a covenant to observe
and perform the covenants referred to in the Charges Register and of
indemnity in respect thereof.

And this relates to the charges register which reads as follows (also explanation would be useful):

A Transfer of the land in this title dated xxxxxx made between (1)
xxxxx and (2) xxxxxx contains restrictive covenants.
NOTE: Copy in Certificate.
2 REGISTERED CHARGE dated xxxxx 2001 to secure the moneys
including the further advances therein mentioned.
3 Proprietor: xxxxxx.
4 The Charge Certificate relating to the charge dated xxxxx 2001 in favour of xxxxx is retained in Land
Registry (Section 63 of the Land Registration Act 1925).

Cheers.

Troubled_Joe

I don't mean to sound rude but these are really questions that you should address with your solicitor.

Jemima5317

Hello. I'm nothing like an expert, but generally I believe mineral and mining rghts are reserved (to the crown) - which basically means should your house be discovered to be on top of a huge diamond seam or something, you couldn't claim it.

Benefit of the rights reserved to, and subject to the rights reserved by... tends (in my limited experience) to relate to rights of access and similar - so for example the title to my house reserves a right of way across my next door neighbours house, but also says that I have to provide access across MY land for my other neighbour. From what you're saying, the title to your new place will have certain stipulations about what you can and can't do on or close to boundaries - for example building a socking great extension that might restrict your neighbours light - and likewise they probably have similar restrictions on their property.

Covenants are statements of what you can/must or can't do with the property - so for example, they might state that you can't start up a commercial business on the property, or that you must contribute to the cost of repairing any shared drainage etc (mine state that I'm not allowed to erect a tent on my property!).

The last bit is basically a little summary, saying the title is subject to these restricted covenants (see above), that there is a registered charge over the property - which will be the current owners mortgage lender, protecting their interest, proprietor is self explanatory (the current owner).

That is a very brief and amateurish overview, but as Troubled Joe says, the title is something that your solicitor will and should talk you through properly as you go through the process. Just make sure you ask carefully about the restricted covenants, as I have a nagging feeling they can sometimes (and only sometimes, so please don't panic!) be a bit of a problem if they're written really strangely.

Hope this helps.

J

skintsol

I agree with the comments above. Your solicitor is meant to explain all of this to you and not leave you to ask around on chatboards (however helpful people are trying to be). That said, please see the information below, which is not given as legal advice, and should be checked against the specific information you have received from the land registry:

"Mines and Minerals excepted" doesn't mean too much these days. When you buy a freehold you (very) technically own everything from the top of the earth's atmosphere to the centre of the earth, within the boundaries of the title plan. By excepting the right to mines and minerals the person who did this made sure that the buyer could not carry out mining operations on the land without consent, as well as owning the rights to any coal/oil/gold contained underneath the land. In practical terms, your solicitor should be doing a coal mining search if the property is in an area where coal mining used to take place, and should check with the seller that they are not aware of any mining operations in the vicinity of the Property.

The reference to rights granted and reserved in the Transfer dated xx is important. You are paying a solicitor to check the terms of this document for you and your bank to make sure that the Property you are buying has all of the rights attached to it that it needs (such as rights to use paths or drives on other people's land if you are not right next to a public highway, or to pass drains and cables along other peoples land if required). The solicitor also needs to check for you that the Property is not subject to any onerous, problematic rights. These rights will bind you when you buy the Property, because they are listed out in a document at the Land Registry which you have seen.

The reference to light and air has been added by the solicitor who drafted the transfer to make sure that the owners of the Property (ie. you if you buy the land) cannot exercise rights to light over some adjoining land owned by his client. If this clause was not included you could potentially prevent him building on his land if this would reduce the amount of light you received.

The reference to boundary structures means that the transfer regulates who is meant to maintain a fence or wall. That fence or wall could be on your land and if it is, you might be liable to maintain it after you complete and buy the property.

The bit from the proprietorship register means that your seller has agreed to comply with the covenants in the transfer, whether or not they are restrictive covenants. A restrictive covenant is a binding promise given by one person to another, promising not to do something on the land, which anyone buying it has to comply with. The party who receives the benefit of the covenant has effectively bolted this on to his own title, so he knows that if he sells his property, you will still be required to comply with the promise not to do something even though he no longer owns the land and the person benefitting from the promise (his buyer) wasn't around when the promise was given. When your solicitor gets a copy of this transfer dated xx, heshould check through all of the covenants carefully, and make sure that complying with them doesn't muck up your plans for the property. If there is a covenant saying you can't build in the back garden for example, you can't do this, and could get sued for a hefty amount if you ignore it. Please note that even if the covenant is written in antiquated language or is old, a covenant dated from the 1800's could still bite you, if the person trying to enforce it has the deeds to show that they own the land benefitting from it.

The charges register says that the Property is subject to these restrictive covenants, and that the seller has granted a mortgage over the Property (probably to a bank or building society). Everyone has a mortgage these days so this is standard, and your solicitor will receive a promise from the seller's solicitor that this mortgage will be removed from the title when you purchase the land.

Hope this helps.

skycrazy

Thanks for all the replies guys. It explained a few things for me. I was planning on following up with the solicitor afterwards, I just wanted to get a heads up on roughly what everything mean't.