The
new record of ownership and mortgage lending, will be held
on the Land Registry Database of which a paper copy is
available from the Registry for a small fee. Title will
be dealt with by the Land Registry without production of
any existing Charge Certificate (for mortgaged property)
or Land Certificate (for property free of mortgage). Any such
Charge or Land Certificates produced to the Registry will be
destroyed. You will, in the future, be able to look at the
registered title to a property on the Land Registry’s
website or, obtain a paper copy, as mentioned above.
The most concerning
thing, for Solicitors, is that ancillary documents such
as Guarantees, Planning Permissions and Building Regulations
Consents will no longer be required to be held by any Lender
and, in respect of Leasehold properties this will also
include the original Lease and any relating Deed of Variation.
Solicitors will have to decide whether to send all such
documents to the Client following registration of the title
or whether to offer to hold such documents at their offices
for safe-keeping.
Historically, Solicitors
have not charged for such a service, although all Lenders
do charge for the storage of documents, but the pressure
on Solicitors to provide safe storage for such ancillary
documents may alter this philosophy.
As will be appreciated, the loss of a Lease or other original
documentation could cause problems at the time of re-sale or
re-mortgage and therefore any documents that are sent to property
owners by their Solicitor, should be kept safely until required
at the time of any future dealing with the property.
Amongst other changes
in procedures, are no less than 57 new Practice Rules under
the Land Registration Act 2002.
In the future it
may be more difficult to obtain Possessory Title (for unregistered
land) or Adverse Possession (for registered land). Therefore,
if there is any parcel of land within the boundaries of
your property which does not match your legal title, your
position in retaining that part, or eventually obtaining
legal title to it may be jeopordised.
When marketing your property, we would
therefore recommend that you produce to your Estate Agent
a copy of your Land Registry filed plan, showing the extent
of the legal title in order that the Agent can do his best
to ascertain that this comprises the whole of the physical
land.
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