Land Title creation

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Dear Land Registry,

On your website it states that 'We keep and maintain the Land Register, where more than 23 million titles – the evidence of ownership – are documented.'. Is the Land Registry responsible for the creation of titles to land, or do you simply keep the records of the titles?

If the Land Registry is not responsible for the creation of land titles then do you have knowledge of who is responsible for the creation of land titles?

Yours faithfully,

Gary

Jones, Lynn L, Land Registry

Dear Gary

Thank you for your email which has been passed to me to respond to.

We are responsible for the creation of titles to land only in so far as when owners of land/property register their land/property with us for the first time we create a title register for their land/property, which provides an up-to-date record of legal ownership and other details relating to the land/property, it is the official record of the ownership of land/property and replaces the traditional title deeds.

It is now compulsory to register all land/property which changes ownership or has a mortgage for the first time. Compulsory land registration has been extended gradually across the country over 90 years. It was not until 1990 that the whole of England and Wales came under compulsory registration. This means that approximately a quarter of land/property in England and Wales remains unregistered because no dealings affecting it have led to compulsory registration.

Practice Guide 51 – Areas served by Land Registry offices contains the date(s) of when each part of England and Wales came under compulsory registration. http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/professio...

Anyone who owns unregistered land/property usually has a bundle of deeds. These form the documents of title. If the land/property is mortgaged, their lender will normally hold these deeds as security for their loan.

They would apply to register the title to freehold or leasehold land/property by lodging these deeds with us. Public Guide 8 – Registering title to land gives details of characteristics and advantages of registering land and Public Guide 13 – Applications for first registration made by the owner in person gives details on how to apply to register land, including a section on what people need to do if title deeds have been lost or destroyed.

http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/public/gu...

http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/public/gu...

I hope this answers your query satisfactorily.

Yours sincerely

Lynn L Jones
Correspondence and Enquiries Officer

Customer Service and Handling
Land Registry Commercial and Customer Directorate
Land Registry Head Office, Trafalgar House, 1 Bedford Park,
Croydon CR0 2AQ
DX 8888 Croydon 3
Direct Dial: 0300 006 7866 | GTN: 67866 | Fax: 0300 006 3211

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