7 Reasons Why You Should Voluntarily Register Your Land Now
Unregistered land relies upon title deeds to show the history of ownership of property
rights but after a successful application to the Land Registry the land is registered, and the ownership of the property and any rights and reservations are recorded in an up-to-date public record that is held at the Land Registry.
Whenever a change in the ownership of land occurs (for example on sale, charge or lease for over 7 years) it is compulsory to apply to the Land Registry for first registration.
However over 30% of land in England and Wales remains unregistered. The Land Registry has recently indicated their intention to reduce this figure to just 20% by 2012. Here are seven good reasons why you should consider voluntary registration of your property now:
1. It provides proof that you own your property - with an official plan.
2. It gives you a much better protection against squatters and can help you to avoid arguments over boundary issues by clarifying exactly what it is that you actually own.
3. It makes future sales of your land simpler, quicker and less expensive. You no longer have to rely on bundles of old legal documents - instead all of the information about your property becomes available in most cases at the click of a mouse from the Land Registry's website.
4. You never have to worry about lost or missing deeds. All the information that you and any future buyers and sellers of your land need is held safely and securely with the Land Registry.
5. It helps stop fraud, which can result from the copying of paper title deeds. It is instead the Land Registry that will be responsible for electronically keeping and updating any information about the ownership of your land.
6. It gives your property solicitor an opportunity to sort out any problems that may currently exist with regards to your title deeds.
7. The land registry is currently offering a 25% reduction on the fee for voluntary registration. Fees for first registration are calculated according to the value of the land being registered (e.g. the price of registration of property which is valued at under 50,000 is reduced down to 40 upon voluntarily application).
To discover if your land or property is already registered, contact an experienced property solicitor. If your property is unregistered your solicitor can help you with the process of registration, with any problems which may result and can check for defects in your unregistered title and offer solutions.