If you buy a property or land, whether that be for residential or business purposes, your solicitor should register the land at the Land Registry. The Land Registry have a central database of all properties that are registered in England and Wales. Once registered your property will have its own unique title number at the Land Registry. If a property is not registered with the Land Registry then solicitors are required to register the land after a transaction has been completed. This is called “compulsory registration.”
If your property has not been sold in the last 30 years it would be prudent to check whether or not it is registered at the Land Registry. You can do that here https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry . Properties that are not registered at the Land Registry are potentially exposed to fraud.
If your property is not registered at the Land Registry it is advisable that you apply to register it. This is called voluntary registration. You will need a solicitor to prepare the application. We can do that for you. You will need to locate your title deeds as they will need to be sent to the Land Registry as part of the first registration application. Please call us on 01204 377600 or email us on commercialpropertyenquiries@afglaw.co.uk and we will contact you as soon as possible to discuss your needs further.
Once a property has been registered at the Land registry it is possible to subscribe to the Land Registry’s Property Alert service https://propertyalert.landregistry.gov.uk/. Properties that are mortgage free are particularly at risk of property fraud. This service is a helpful tool for property owners to monitor those properties.
If the title deeds to a property have been lost or destroyed before the property has been registered at the Land Registry then it is still possible to register the property with the Land Registry but it is a much more complicated process. An application to reconstruct the title needs to the made to the Land Registry. We can do that for you.
Please call us on 01204 377600 or email us on commercialpropertyenquiries@afglaw.co.uk and we will contact you as soon as possible to discuss your needs further.
