Compulsory registration of all property in England and Wales will become
mandatory as from 2012. In the run-up to that date, the LR has begun a
campaign to encourage voluntary first registration.
Accordingly, it has
established a register development team which actively encourages large
landowners to register their estates. At the same time, the LR has developed
a relatively straightforward process for completing large-scale voluntary
registration projects.
Accordingly, if you are acting for a landowner with various large plots, do
consider the merits of applying for voluntary registration at this stage. The
benefits of registration are fairly obvious: security of title (ie removing of
arguments about the scope of the title, plus you get a plan to define
boundaries); there is better protection against squatters and those in
adverse possession; and there is a 25% discount on fees for voluntary
registrations (and significant savings can be made by making large-scale
applications compared to piecemeal applications over a period of time).
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May 2006 |
