17th March 2025
HM Land Registry keeps a record of property ownership in England and Wales. Registration of title provides certainty and gives reliable information about property ownership and interests affecting land and property. The Land Register contains more than 26 million titles, covering more than 88% of the total area of England and Wales.
However, there are still many properties that are not registered with HM Land Registry. There can be several reasons for this; a common one is that the property hasn’t been involved in a transaction since registration of property was made compulsory in the 1990’s.
You don’t need to wait to register your property with HM Land Registry. Bethany Edwards, Senior Property Lawyer with at Myers and Co ,explains some of the benefits of registering your property.
If your property is not registered, it might be more difficult to produce evidence of your ownership if you want to pass your property onto a loved one, to sell it, or to raise finance against it. When a property isn’t registered, the record of ownership is contained in lots of separate deeds and documents that may be old and difficult to read. Registering with HM Land Registry condenses all these documents. Instead, details about the property such as boundaries, owners and whether there is a mortgage against it are summarised in a Title Information Document, which confirms the data the Registry holds on its central digital register. Rather than there being any confusion or missing/damaged documents, you can be confident that the correct details are stored, and the risk of future complication is greatly reduced.
Unregistered land can also be subject to a higher risk of fraud, as criminals can register with HM Land Registry using forged and fake documents to change the title of the property from your name to theirs. Your property can then be used as collateral if they take out loans. Registering your property with HM Land Registry means your title is protected by a state guarantee and if there is an error in the register you are indemnified, and you’re more likely to be compensated from public funds.
As it is now a legal requirement that property needs to be registered following a transaction such as a sale or a remortgage, if you register your property before you begin the transaction will be much more straightforward. Having your property correctly registered with HM Land Registry also greatly reduces the chance of any delays once the transaction has started, as the conveyancers involved won’t need to spend additional time looking over old deeds and other documents. Registration can also cure defects in title which may otherwise cause problems for you when you attempt to sell or remortgage your unregistered property.
There are two types of first-time registration, ‘voluntary’ and ‘compulsory’. Compulsory registration is triggered by a sale or other transaction, but you can choose to register voluntarily without a transaction happening. Voluntary registration is cheaper as it is offered at a reduced rate.
Knowing where your boundaries are is important. While they are rare, sometimes neighbour disputes happen. You may need access to carry out work on your own property via your neighbour’s. When you register your property with HM Land Registry, you will receive a title plan that gives you a rough outline of your boundaries. The title plan might not go into specifics around fences or hedges, but it gives you a good starting point when discussing access to your neighbour’s land for repairs, or if there is a boundary dispute.
As registering your property with HM Land Registry is a legal requirement, it makes sense to get ahead! Most first registrations are taking up to 16 months as a minimum, so starting the application process sooner rather than later means it is one less thing for you to worry about.
For further information, please contact Bethany Edwards on 01782 577000 or email bethany.edwards@myerssolicitors.co.uk. Myers & Co has offices in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
