My house is registered as "land only" do I need to do anything?

ProDave

I bought our plot as a building plot 10 years ago.  We are in Scotland and the land is registered on the ROS website.  But it is registered as "Land Only" which of course would have been correct, as when we bought it, it was a bare piece of land upon which we have now built a house.

We have no intention of selling the house, so do I need to spend time (and money?) getting the land registry entry altered to "residential"

Since the house has been completed, someone (Ordnance survey?) has been and mapped the buildings on the plot and they now appear correctly on the map on the ROS site, as does the house name.

user1977

No. If you own the land then you also own everything that's built on it.

Though I'm not sure what you're looking at exactly - there's nothing on the Land Register to record whether a property is "residential" or not. Are you looking at a registration application form? That asks what the use of the property is, but it's just for statistical purposes, it doesn't dictate what you're allowed to do with it and the response doesn't appear on the register.

https://kb.ros.gov.uk/land-and-property-registration/the-application-form/application-form-guide#land-use

theartfullodger

user1977 said:

No. If you own the land then you also own everything that's built on it.

Though I'm not sure what you're looking at exactly - there's nothing on the Land Register to record whether a property is "residential" or not. Are you looking at a registration application form? That asks what the use of the property is, but it's just for statistical purposes, it doesn't dictate what you're allowed to do with it and the response doesn't appear on the register.

https://kb.ros.gov.uk/land-and-property-registration/the-application-form/application-form-guide#land-use

Not necessarily - think about tenements where some person or entity owns the land but individual flat owners own each one.

Talk to a solicitor.  Any mortgage on the place?  

user1977

theartfullodger said:

user1977 said:

No. If you own the land then you also own everything that's built on it.

Though I'm not sure what you're looking at exactly - there's nothing on the Land Register to record whether a property is "residential" or not. Are you looking at a registration application form? That asks what the use of the property is, but it's just for statistical purposes, it doesn't dictate what you're allowed to do with it and the response doesn't appear on the register.

https://kb.ros.gov.uk/land-and-property-registration/the-application-form/application-form-guide#land-use

Not necessarily - think about tenements where some person or entity owns the land but individual flat owners own each one. 

The land under a tenement is owned jointly by the owners of the flats. The title to any flat typically includes something along the lines of

"Together with...a right in common with the proprietors of the remaining parts of the said tenement [x] in and to...the solum on which the said tenement is erected and the pavements and roadways ex adverso the same and the back ground appropriated to the said tenement"

ProDave

user1977 said:

No. If you own the land then you also own everything that's built on it.

Though I'm not sure what you're looking at exactly - there's nothing on the Land Register to record whether a property is "residential" or not. Are you looking at a registration application form? That asks what the use of the property is, but it's just for statistical purposes, it doesn't dictate what you're allowed to do with it and the response doesn't appear on the register.

https://kb.ros.gov.uk/land-and-property-registration/the-application-form/application-form-guide#land-use

That link defines "land" as

Land only

transaction over land not for agricultural or forestry use; e.g. a house plot, a site for housing or other building development, area(s) of garden ground, etc.

So it was right to be registered as land when bought as a house plot.

Where I was looking was having found my plot on the map search, clicking on details and it listed "property type" as land only with exactly the same choices as on the registration form page linked above.

user1977

ProDave said:

user1977 said:

No. If you own the land then you also own everything that's built on it.

Though I'm not sure what you're looking at exactly - there's nothing on the Land Register to record whether a property is "residential" or not. Are you looking at a registration application form? That asks what the use of the property is, but it's just for statistical purposes, it doesn't dictate what you're allowed to do with it and the response doesn't appear on the register.

https://kb.ros.gov.uk/land-and-property-registration/the-application-form/application-form-guide#land-use

That link defines "land" as

Land only

transaction over land not for agricultural or forestry use; e.g. a house plot, a site for housing or other building development, area(s) of garden ground, etc.

So it was right to be registered as land when bought as a house plot.

Where I was looking was having found my plot on the map search, clicking on details and it listed "property type" as land only with exactly the same choices as on the registration form page linked above.

Ok, that's just telling you what the answer to that question was on the last registration form. It doesn't actually appear on the registered title, and doesn't have any legal significance.

YoungBlueEyes

Might it be one of those situations where it’ll make no difference to you now, but it’d be worth tidying it up to save your children/heirs a bit of hassle after you’ve gone…? 

Bit like ‘first registration’ in England. 

ProDave

user1977 said:

ProDave said:

user1977 said:

No. If you own the land then you also own everything that's built on it.

Though I'm not sure what you're looking at exactly - there's nothing on the Land Register to record whether a property is "residential" or not. Are you looking at a registration application form? That asks what the use of the property is, but it's just for statistical purposes, it doesn't dictate what you're allowed to do with it and the response doesn't appear on the register.

https://kb.ros.gov.uk/land-and-property-registration/the-application-form/application-form-guide#land-use

That link defines "land" as

Land only

transaction over land not for agricultural or forestry use; e.g. a house plot, a site for housing or other building development, area(s) of garden ground, etc.

So it was right to be registered as land when bought as a house plot.

Where I was looking was having found my plot on the map search, clicking on details and it listed "property type" as land only with exactly the same choices as on the registration form page linked above.

Ok, that's just telling you what the answer to that question was on the last registration form. It doesn't actually appear on the registered title, and doesn't have any legal significance.

The only thing is, because it was registered as "land" there is no postal address on the register entry.  So if does not show up under a postcode search but shows if you view the map search of that postcode.

I won't bother doing anything, I doubt it would complicate a future sale very much.

user1977

YoungBlueEyes said:

Might it be one of those situations where it’ll make no difference to you now, but it’d be worth tidying it up to save your children/heirs a bit of hassle after you’ve gone…? 

No, there is absolutely no possibility of "hassle" because of this, or a need to do anything, or (as far as I can see) even an ability to do anything about it. The online system is correctly showing the details from the last application.

It isn't like first registration - the title is registered.

theartfullodger

user1977 said:

theartfullodger said:

user1977 said:

No. If you own the land then you also own everything that's built on it.

Though I'm not sure what you're looking at exactly - there's nothing on the Land Register to record whether a property is "residential" or not. Are you looking at a registration application form? That asks what the use of the property is, but it's just for statistical purposes, it doesn't dictate what you're allowed to do with it and the response doesn't appear on the register.

https://kb.ros.gov.uk/land-and-property-registration/the-application-form/application-form-guide#land-use

Not necessarily - think about tenements where some person or entity owns the land but individual flat owners own each one. 

The land under a tenement is owned jointly by the owners of the flats. The title to any flat typically includes something along the lines of

"Together with...a right in common with the proprietors of the remaining parts of the said tenement [x] in and to...the solum on which the said tenement is erected and the pavements and roadways ex adverso the same and the back ground appropriated to the said tenement"

Exactly that is the entity that owns the land.  That jointly owned entity that owns the land is not the same as the individuals.  Just as, say, I have a few shares in a company, a part owner, but I don't own the company ..

user1977

theartfullodger said:

user1977 said:

theartfullodger said:

user1977 said:

No. If you own the land then you also own everything that's built on it.

Though I'm not sure what you're looking at exactly - there's nothing on the Land Register to record whether a property is "residential" or not. Are you looking at a registration application form? That asks what the use of the property is, but it's just for statistical purposes, it doesn't dictate what you're allowed to do with it and the response doesn't appear on the register.

https://kb.ros.gov.uk/land-and-property-registration/the-application-form/application-form-guide#land-use

Not necessarily - think about tenements where some person or entity owns the land but individual flat owners own each one. 

The land under a tenement is owned jointly by the owners of the flats. The title to any flat typically includes something along the lines of

"Together with...a right in common with the proprietors of the remaining parts of the said tenement [x] in and to...the solum on which the said tenement is erected and the pavements and roadways ex adverso the same and the back ground appropriated to the said tenement"

Exactly that is the entity that owns the land.  That jointly owned entity that owns the land is not the same as the individuals.  Just as, say, I have a few shares in a company, a part owner, but I don't own the company ..

There isn't a "jointly-owned entity" though. This isn't like a freeholder in Englandshire where the flat owners might own shares in the freehold company - the title to the communal parts of the tenement (including the land) is bundled in with the title to each flat.