Land Registration

Helping you with all aspects of land registry.

First Registration of unregistered property

Where a property has not yet been registered at the Land Registry and the title is deduced from a bundle of physical deeds, it is advisable to deal with the First Registration of the property at the Land Registry at the earliest opportunity.

Registration of a property at the Land Register can help to avoid future issues arising with the deeds and boundaries of the property. It is also helpful to avoid issues arising after the death of the owner which the Personal Representatives of the deceased property owner may not have any knowledge of.

When is Registration Required?

However, it is not essential to apply for First Registration unless an event occurs that triggers compulsory registration. Triggering events can be a transfer of the property, a mortgage of the property or a change of ownership for some other reason, for example, death (where the property does not automatically pass under the "joint tenants" scenario).

Therefore, there is still quite a lot of unregistered property where the property owner has not changed and the property owner has not mortgage the property since compulsory registration was introduced in the 1980s.

Contact our team to get started

The registration process

First Registration is a process whereby the deeds are reviewed and scheduled and sent to the Land Registry with the relevant Land Registry form.

The deeds have to be produced in a certain order so that the Land Registry can establish a chain of ownership over a period of time. The Land Registry may raise enquiries about the deeds when considering the application for First Registration.

What happens after registration

On First Registration, if the Land Registry is satisfied with the deeds, the property will be allocated a Title Number and the property will be placed on the Land Registry's Register (and will become a public record).

Going forwards, it will be possible to rely upon an electronic copy of the register as evidence of ownership.

First registration fees

Our fees for this will usually be based upon the value of the property and these start at £500 plus VAT (which on £500 is £100) together with the relevant Land Registry fee payable on registration of the updated ownership.

It may be necessary to obtain Land Charges searches to submit with the First Registration and these are £6 plus VAT per search.

Adverse Possession

This is where a claim is made on the title based upon a minimum period (usually 10 years for registered land and 12 years for unregistered land) of uninterrupted occupation of the same where the occupier is not the legal owner of the property.

These are complex claims and the success of each claim depends entirely upon the facts of the case.

Making a Claim

In order to make a claim for adverse possession, we would need to assess all of the evidence of adverse possession and consider that there is a reasonable prospect of the claim succeeding. The gathering of evidence can be a lengthy process.

Defending Against Claims

On resisting a claim for adverse possession, we would again need to consider all the evidence and assess the same. There are also strict time limits to adhere to in such cases.

Adverse possession fees

We would need to fully consider all aspects of your case to determine the way forward and our fees will be charged in accordance with the time spent on the matter at our current hourly rates.

There will also be a fee payable to the Land Registry for the application and additional Land Registry searches may be required (details of which will be provided in full once the application has been considered).

If the matter is disputed then the time spent on the matter will escalate but we will provide you with regular costs updates in such circumstance.