Land Registration - United Kingdom

United Kingdom

A national system of land registration was first attempted in England and Wales under the Land Registration Act 1862, a register having operated for the county of Middlesex (excluding the City of London) since 1709. This voluntary national system proved ineffective and, following further attempts in 1875 and 1897, the present system was brought into force by the Land Registration Act 1925. It is operated by HM Land Registry.

Over time various areas of the country were designated areas of compulsory registration by order so in different parts of the country compulsory registration has been around longer than in others. The last order was made in 1990, so now virtually all transactions in land result in compulsory registration. One difference is land changing ownership after death, where land is gifted rather than sold; these became compulsorily registrable only in April 1998. Similarly it became compulsory to register land when a mortgage is created on it in 1998.

The Land Registration Act 2002 leaves the 1925 system substantially in place but enables the future compulsory introduction of electronic conveyancing using electronic signatures to transfer and register property.

The Land Registry is connected to the European Land Information Service EULIS. Alternative sources of Land Registry information for England and Wales is available from independent suppliers including www.Landregistry-uk.com

Details of registrations are available to any person upon payment of the prescribed fees. Precautionary measures have been introduced in recent years to verify the identity of persons attempting to change records of title. No details will be on record for any land which has not had a relevant transaction recorded as will often occur if, for example, ownership was last transferred before the introduction of compulsory registration in a particular area.

Land registration commenced in Scotland with the creation of the Register of Sasines by the Registration Act 1617. The Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979 introduced a new system which now records all changes of ownership of land and creation of new titles. The Registers of Scotland agency is responsible for maintaining both the Register of Sasines and the new register.

Land registration in Northern Ireland is operated by Land and Property Services, an executive agency within the Department of Finance and Personnel for Northern Ireland. Prior to 1 Apr 2007 it was dealt with by the Land Registers Northern Ireland government agency.

A legal boundary deals with the precise separation of ownership of land. It is an invisible line dividing one person's land from another's. It does not have thickness or width and usually, but not always, falls somewhere in or along a physical boundary feature such as a wall, fence or hedge. The exact positions of the legal boundaries are almost never shown on registered title plans and are not shown on Ordnance Survey maps. In a joint statement between Land Registry (England and Wales) and Ordnance survey they state that:

This title plan shows the general position of the boundaries: it does not show the exact line of the boundaries. Measurements scaled from this plan may not match measurements between the same points on the ground.

This is a clear statement that Land Registry is unable to tell you precisely where a property boundary is located.