Dear Mr Barrs

Thank you for your email of 8 January 2018 querying the following: -

“Dear Land Registry, When a complaint is made to Land Registry and that
complaint is to be independently reviewed because the customer is not
satisfied, who would normally review the complaint? 
Surely not an assistant land registrar at the same land registry office?
Could you tell me the usual procedure please?”

HM Land Registry’s role is first and foremost administrative.  We do not
have power to adjudicate on disputes about land or inheritance matters,
and it is not our job to tell individual customers whether they do or do
not own a particular piece of land.  We deal with registration
applications on the basis of documents and information that are provided
by the applicants. When we receive an application, as long as it satisfies
the legal requirements for registration, we must register the interest. 
We cannot decide disputes for example between two people who both claim
the same land.  We also cannot prevent an application from being
registered based on a verbal notification by another party and in absence
of a formal application.

HM Land Registry’s [1]Complaints procedure is set out on our website on
GOV.UK.  To summarise, complaints should be raised initially with the
person the customer has been dealing with, and we will aim to give a
response in five working days, or explain why this is not possible.  If
after receiving the response, the customer is still unhappy he or she can
contact the person who handled the initial complaint and ask it to be
escalated.  The complaint will then be reviewed and a final response will
be given; depending on the nature of the complaint, this may come from a
local Land Registrar, the Operations Manager or another senior manager.

Registration matters are handled by the HM Land Registry office dealing
with the relevant title, and any concerns or issues arising out of that
are best investigated by the relevant office as it has better awareness of
the relevant facts.  The complaint can be investigated by the member of
staff who dealt with the matter or, if appropriate, referred to a senior
manager or lawyer at the office. 

Registration decisions can include not only substantive decisions on the
outcome of applications (for example, whether or not to grant a registered
title or what extent is included within a registered title), but also
decisions on the questions of the interpretation and implementation of
practice and policy to applications, subject of course to Land Registry’s
overall practice and policy. 

The local Land Registrar is the most senior lawyer at a local office, and
as such has delegated responsibility from the Chief Land Registrar for all
registration decisions at that office.  Given local Land Registrars’
general authority to exercise their judgement in these matters, we do not
consider that it is helpful or appropriate to have further stages of
internal review.  In our view, this only serves to further prolong matters
for our customers, and also to raise what in all likelihood are false
expectations of the possibility of a different outcome. 

With regards to seeking independent review, according to our complaints
procedures a customer who remains dissatisfied with Land Registry's
response following an internal review of the complaint can request an
independent review by [2]Independent Complaints Reviewer for HM Land
Registry, and the [3]Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman after that. 
It is important to stress that the referral to Independent Complaints
Reviewer for HM Land Registry applies only to complaints about the service
that HM Land Registry has provided or their handling of the matter. Where
a legal decision is being challenged, the usual procedure is for the
decision to be reviewed by the local Land Registrar at the relevant
office.  Once a decision has been confirmed by a local Land Registrar, it
is final and can only be challenged in court.

It is the right of our customers to express concerns about the service
provided, and to make suggestions for improvement.  They are also entitled
to expect HM Land Registry to take their concerns and suggestions
seriously, to say whether or not their points are accepted, and whether it
will be taking any steps to improve matters.  Ultimately, however, it is
HM Land Registry’s responsibility to set its own procedures.  In doing
this, HM Land Registry has to balance many considerations, including its
responsibility to safeguard the integrity of the register together with
the interests of different groups of customers.  As matters stand our
practice and policy is as we have stated and follows the Principles of
Good Complaint Handling set out by Parliamentary & Health Service
Ombudsman.

Yours sincerely,

Nimish Patel
Head Office Customer Service Manager

HM Land Registry Customer Division

Operations Directorate

HM Land Registry Head Office, Trafalgar House, 1 Bedford Park, Croydon CR0
2AQ

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References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
2. http://www.icrev.org.uk/
3. https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/

Dear Mr Barrs

Thank you for your further email.

If I may clarify, the reference to 'another senior manager' does include Assistant Land Registrars.

Yours sincerely
Nimish Patel

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Dear Mr Barrs,

Each complaint would be investigated and dealt by the most appropriate person depending on the context and the issues. However, we would not expect a member of staff to investigate complaint about someone senior to them.

Yours sincerely
Nimish Patel

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