The Title Register

The Title Register

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Overview

The Land Registry Title Register provides essential information about a property's legal ownership and interests. When purchasing a Title Register, you'll find comprehensive details that offer insights into the property's history, ownership, and any legal rights or restrictions associated with it. Most importantly, the overriding use of the Title Register is to provide official evidence of ownership.

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Title Number

The Title to all properties is assigned a unique Title Number. This is found on every page of the Title Register (sometimes called the Information Sheet). Each estate in the property also has a unique Title Number, for example, if there is both a freehold Title and leasehold title, they will have different Title Numbers. The Title Number is important as it is used by many official organisations to quickly identify your property, and is something you will need to know each time you wish to register a change to the Register.

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Property Description

The Title Register has three separate sections:

1. Property Register
2. Proprietorship Register
3. Charges Register

The property description is contained within the A Section. Where the property has a postal address this will be provided, e.g.

MERSEYSIDE    :    LIVERPOOL

1    (10.3.2010)    The Freehold land shown edged with red on the plan of the above Title filed at the Register and being 10 Sumpter Avenue, Halewood, Liverpool L25 6EW.

Where there is no postal address there will be a description of the property, e.g.

MERSEYSIDE    :    LIVERPOOL

1    (10.3.2010)    The Freehold land shown edged with red on the plan of the above Title filed at the Registry and being all that land abutting the east border of Juniper Wood, Caerwys, St Asaph and lying between the letters marked A, B, C and D.

In addition, there is always a reference to the Title Plan and a statement that the property is more particularly described in the Plan. Both The Title Register and Title Plan are designed to be read together.

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Ownership Information

Details of the current ownership are contained in the B section of the Register, i.e. the name and contact address of the current owner. When a property is purchased and re-registered the name of the out-going owner is replaced with the new owner, as shown:

Title Absolute
1    (9.7.2003)    Proprietor: James Sweeney of 10 Sumpter Avenue. Halewood, Liverpool L25 6EW.

In other parts of the UK, e.g. in Northern Ireland, The Title Register, or Folio, may show previous owners names and addresses, with a strike-out line passing through them, followed by the current ownership details. In England and Wales all reference to the previous owner and previous mortgages are removed.

Copies of previous Title Registers, however, can be obtained by applying for a Prior Title Register search. They will show the ownership details as they were at the date you enter in the search.

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Easements

Easements, such as rights of way and rights of access, that benefit the property are shown in Section A of the Register. Details of the easements will be provided sufficient to identify what they are, and are usually also shown in colour in the Title Plan. The Register will describe what the colours represent.

A typical example of a registered Right of Way is:

2 The land has the benefit of a right of way on foot only over the land tinted brown on the filed plan.

The accompanying Title Plan shows the Right of Way as follows, where the right of way is shaded brown as described in the Title Register:

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Mortgages and Other Charges

Section C of the Title Register provides details of any mortgages and charges affecting the property. If there are no mortgages or charges there will be no section C. Details of the mortgage will include the name and address of the mortgagee and the date it was created. Details of the amount outstanding will not be shown but can be obtained by writing to the mortgagee at the address shown in the Register.

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Leases

Section A of the Register includes brief details of any registered leases including the date it was created, the names of the original parties and the length of the lease. If the lease is registered its Title Number will also be shown.

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Property Boundaries

As a general rule the property boundaries are not described in any detail, save for the reference to the filed plan, but this only shows the boundaries in a general way. Electronic copies of some of the Associated Documents may be available to purchase, and they may show more detail of the boundaries.