No titles found on land registry website

jjlandlord

Checking a property to potentially buy on the land registry website, I got (first time I encounter this):

Address: Somewhere in an English town

Tenure: n/a

Price Paid/Value Stated Data:
n/a

Sorry, we do not have a record of any titles for this property. This does not necessarily mean that the property is unregistered.

If the property is registered, does the above message mean that I'll have to go to the land registry office to research the titles?

Assuming it is unregistered, has anyone got any experience of the potential complications?

Thanks!

Flat_Eric

I would ring the local Land Registry office on Tuesday. Google "Land Registry office finder" to find which office you need to contact - You can search by postcode / county / district.

It could be that you don't have the address you are interested in 100% correct ? Is it a freehold property or leasehold property you are trying to find out about ? Leasehold properties can be a tad more tricky to identify.

If the property you are interested in hasn't been bought or sold in "x" amount of years and the owners haven't remortgaged then it can be quite possible that the title remains unregistered. Properties in England and Wales have been subject to compulsory registration for some (many) years now but each county / town differs as to the actual compulsory registration date. If you are interested - This info. is also on the Land Reg site somewhere!

If the title is unregistered then you will encounter a more involved conveyancing process and the fee you will pay to your solicitor is likely to be more. This is because ownership of the property (if I recall correctly) has to be proven from the date the property was built to the present day and there will be lots of old documents / conveyances and deeds for your conveyancing solicitor to peruse. The seller's solicitor will supply instead of the usual Title Information document (for a registered property) an Epitome of Title which will contain (should contain) all relevant documents pertaining to the property. If you google Epitome of Title, you should get a better explanation than I have offered !

jjlandlord

Flat_Eric wrote: »

It could be that you don't have the address you are interested in 100% correct ? Is it a freehold property or leasehold property you are trying to find out about ? Leasehold properties can be a tad more tricky to identify.

I'm sure about the address and it is a freehold.

Flat_Eric wrote: »

If the property you are interested in hasn't been bought or sold in "x" amount of years and the owners haven't remortgaged then it can be quite possible that the title remains unregistered.

Yes, that's a possibility indeed as I reckon the property hasn't been sold for 30-40 years...

Thanks for these information!

Edit: Looked around the land registry website. Compulsory registration date for my area was in 1962... That confirms the level of modernisation I had in mind

Suzy_M

Flat Eric-

Can you clarify -

If a property is not shown on the Land Registry web site doesn't this simply mean there has been no activity relating to the property since the Land Registry started putting records on line. - i.e. The property would still be registered but the records are simply not available online.

Flat_Eric

Suzy_M wrote: »

Flat Eric-

Can you clarify -

If a property is not shown on the Land Registry web site doesn't this simply mean there has been no activity relating to the property since the Land Registry started putting records on line. - i.e. The property would still be registered but the records are simply not available online.

If a property is unregistered then the Land Registry will have no details about it and only when the property is sold (or the home owner applies for voluntary registration) will details be available on-line.

Practice Guide 51 available on the Land Registry website is a good reference point for finding out the date of compulsory registration for where you live (England and Wales properties). Also refer to Practice Guide 13.

Nosht

I bought a property that was not registered & the Registrar just made the assumption that the property existed between the 2 surrounding ones, checked with me that this was the case, that the boundaries were correct & simply registered it as such.
The cottage had not changed hands since 1957, (in Scotland).

N.

ab7167

I bought a property last year that was unregistered, they only complication we had was that the next door property was also unregistered, and we have an odd (not straight) boundary. It's obvious on the ground where the boundary is, but we had to have a proper survey with a theodolite done to establish a true representation on a map. This was signed by us and the neighbour and then registered with LR. When next door sell, they will register the bit of land left between us and their other (registered) next door neighbour. Easy for them, we had to do all the legwork - and it tool about 4 months to sort out.

Richard_Webster

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flat Eric
It could be that you don't have the address you are interested in 100% correct ? Is it a freehold property or leasehold property you are trying to find out about ? Leasehold properties can be a tad more tricky to identify.
I'm sure about the address and it is a freehold.

The Land Registry will have it registered under the details given when it was first registered. If the Post Office allocate a postal address it doesn't follow that the LR will update their records. If you have plan showing the property and the surrounding properties then you could do a SIM search at the LR - you can down load the form from the landregistry.gov.uk website. That will tell you definitively whether or not the land in question is registered, and if registered, the title number.

blueled

To ask something additional on this:

If the search for a property reveals no result (not registered), is the 4GBP fee refunded?

G_M

If it is unregistered it will not show up so there will be nothing to request therefore no fee to pay.

You don't pay to do a search, you pay to download the Title or Plan you find.

jjlandlord

Quick update since this thread was bumped:

I enquired to the Land Registry and there answer was that the property was probably unregistered but that I could carry out a search out of index map to make sure.
Such search is paper-based through the following form: http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/assets/library/documents/sim.pdf

The form is to be sent to the appropriate Land Registry office and the following:

You must send a plan with your application to ensure we can identify the land that you are interested in, together with a cheque for £5.00. Please note that if more than five titles are disclosed then we will request a further fee. The plan should be drawn to scale and be based on the latest edition of the large scale Ordnance Survey map. The scale and north point should be indicated, and the extent of the property should be shown by suitable colouring and its position in relation to nearby roads, and other features, should be readily apparent.

A bit overkill for me at this stage, but might be useful in the future.