Do you have an unregistered property? Is there any benefit to registering the land?

You may find it surprising that there remains a number of unregistered properties in the UK. It is estimated that around 15% of UK land/property is unregistered. There are a number of steps that will trigger compulsory first registration of a property, for example, a property sale, remortgage, or lease of a property, to name a few. However, does it matter if you own an unregistered property? Is there any merit in completing a voluntary first registration? Well, there are a number of advantages to registering a property, and we have listed a few of these below: -

1. Registration can help protect against property fraud. Quite simply, if the land is not registered then the Land Registry are unable to contact you to notify you that there is a party trying to claim a right over your land.
2. Registration of land can help to avoid boundary disputes. Occasionally, the boundaries of a neighbouring property are incorrectly registered at the Land Registry, having wrongly included some of the unregistered land. It is often only picked up when reviewing the deeds of the unregistered property, during the sale process. This then adds unnecessary delay and stress to a property sale, whilst time is spent trying to resolve and correct the boundaries at the Land Registry, before the sale can complete.
3. Unregistered deeds and documents can, unfortunately, be mislaid or destroyed, which for an unregistered property then inevitably results in a costly and protracted process in order to reconstitute the title to the property and prove ownership over the land.
4. Commonly the sale of a registered title, rather than an unregistered one, is swifter and cheaper as the title is electronically stored and the deeds are readily available.
5. It is becoming much more commonplace for banks and building societies to provide the property deeds to homeowners to retain, upon payment of the mortgage. They are less likely to agree to store the deeds, however, voluntary registration can take away the stress of having to store the deeds. 

Whilst it is a property owner’s choice as to whether they complete a voluntary first registration of their property, they must ensure that the deeds and documents to the property are retained in a safe place until they are required. If you are interested in registering your property, to benefit from some of the above, then please do give our Residential Conveyancing team a call and they will be happy to discuss this with you.

Stafford 01785 252377

Newcastle 01782 987551

Alsager 01270 446260

Sarah McCleary      Stella Clarke