Voluntary Registration of property

[Piers]

Has anyone registered a property for the first time with Land Registry recently? I'm wondering how difficult it is and how much it should cost.

 

I'm not sure how much the property is worth exactly, it'll either fall in the £200-500k or £500k-1m bracket

 

Lawyers are quoting £1200-1500+vat including Land Registry fees.

[epsilonGreedy]

Naive question from me. Are you registering a property or the land on which the property sits?

 

Also is this a transfer of ownership, a split of an existing plot (known as a "part" in legal speak) or are you one of those exceptionally lucky people who stumbled on a parcel of land with no owner.

 

When buying my self build plot the estate agency refused to proceed with the sale unless I appointed a solicitor and explained this was a new policy arising from a recent bad experience for them.

[Guest Alphonsox]

You can register your property yourself, without the use of lawyers. From my contact with Land Registry a few years ago they seem a friendly enough crowd.

 

Land registry Fees

[Piers]

None of the above. The property is a small cottage with some land around it. It hasn't changed hands for a very long time (it's in a Trust) and thus isn't registered with Land Registry. We are considering splitting the plot and have been advised that it's a good idea to register with Land Registry before starting planning discussions etc.

 

I don't want to do the work myself but I do want to ensure that it's done at a reasonable price. I can see the Land Registry fees (thank you) which come to a few hundred quid. I'm wondering whether there's £1000 worth of legal expenses. To me it looks like a simple exercise but maybe it's a minefield - I just don't know!

[billt]

Yes. I did this for my parents house a few years ago, as the utterly incompetent purchasers solicitor refused to do a first registration. It is pretty easy. You have to fill in form FR1  and send it with a fee to the relevant Land Registry office. Instructions are available on the uk.gov website. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/first-registrations/practice-guide-1-first-registrations

 

FR1 downloadable here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/first-application-registration-fr1

Fees https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hm-land-registry-registration-services-fees

 

Unless there is a huge complication £1200 is taking the Michael.

 

 

[Guest Alphonsox]

1 minute ago, billt said:

Yes. I did this for my parents house a few years ago, as the utterly incompetent purchasers solicitor refused to do a first registration. It is pretty easy. You have to fill in form FR1  and send it with a fee to the relevant Land Registry office. Instructions are available on the uk.gov website. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/first-registrations/practice-guide-1-first-registrations

 

FR1 downloadable here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/first-application-registration-fr1

Fees https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hm-land-registry-registration-services-fees

 

Unless there is a huge complication £1200 is taking the Michael.

 

 

 

 

I've just been through a similar experience - 300+ year old cottage and land, never registered. You are only required to register in a number of circumstances, namely

• bought it
• been given it
• inherited it
• received it in exchange for other property or land
• mortgaged the property

We we're selling so eventually dodged the registry bit and left it to the purchasers.

I would say £1200 definitely seems on the high side, Give the Land Registry a call and save a grand.....

 

 

[MikeSharp01]

If you have, or access to, the deeds you can use the approach @billt suggests LR are very helpful and doing yourself is simple. Without the deeds the process is much more complex and you may need professional help but it is still possible.

[TerryE]

We split our plot to build our new property and since we bought it 15 yrs before registry was required in South Northants, we had to register it at the same time.  This was when we discovered that one of our neighbours (or at least her nephew who arranged the sale of her property) had included a path that belonged to our property in her cottage's LRO registration (but never told us) 15 years previously.  It didn't matter that the path was explicitly detailed in the original 1913 deed of sale as part of its hereditaments, the LRO took the position that the original registration took precedence unless varied by agreement or court order.  What a costly and time-consuming PITA that was to sort, though in the end we decided that bribing the neighbour  with an "inconvenience payment" to cooperate and sign the TP1, also having "no registered boundary disputes" was going to be cheaper and easier than the adversarial  route.  Also one side of our property was shared with another three neighbours and when we planted a laurel hedge 30 years ago, the shared fence posts were on a taught-line.  26 years later we looked at the recorded boundary and it was all over the place (and a couple of neighbours have moved they fenceline behind the cover of the hedge).  Again in practice, he who registers first defines the boundary.

 

So my advice is do register your property as soon as practical, and be prepared to discover issues when you do so -- ones that might take time and effort to resolve.  You don't want to do this when you are working to a deadline.  Because of all of the complications, this cost us about £2K in legal fees in the end and IMO our solicitor was incompetent.  (E.g. they handn't bothered to read the 1913 deed of sale and it took me 5 mins to find the relevant paragraph -- after it was all settled and the handed over the old deeds).

[Ferdinand]

The advantage of using a solicitor is that you may (may!) get a fixed price ,which would mitigate your risk. Or you may not.

 

I would concur to talk to the Land Registry first, and I have always found them very helpful over the phone for an initial chat about the system and to identify the information needed etc, or to explain any baffling or antoque concepts after I have done some how to research on the info-sheets on their website. If you google there has also been a good LR blog maintained by them with a lot of q&a in the comments which helps see how people did a lot of things.

 

Then if necessary I have gone in to the local office (ask to book a parking space - outs has half a dozen free for visitors) and had a free adviser meeting at the foyer side-desk while I do the actual forms, and they check them.

 

Ferdinand