Registered Land Property Law

Property Law - Registered Land
The system of registration of title was perhaps the greatest of the reforms that came out
of the wholesale restructuring of English property law in 1925. Today, the majority of land in England and Wales is ‘registered land’ and is now governed by the LRA 2002.
The 2002 Act is ‘transaction-driven’ - its primary aim is to ensure the quick, efficient and inexpensive transfer of estates and interests in land while ensuring
that third-party interests in land are properly protected. It seeks to ensure that as many estates in land as possible become registered and to ensure that as many
third-party rights as possible are recorded on the register of title of the estate that is affected by those rights.
Simply put, to describe land as ‘registered’ means that the title to it is entered in a register maintained by HM Land Registry and accessed through a number of district land registries around the country or, increasingly, online. Each title is referenced by a unique title number. In addition to information about the title itself (e.g. quality of title, general description of land and identity of estate owner), (and) other rights and interests affecting the title may be recorded on the register against the title number.
As things currently stand under the LRA 2002, not quite every ‘estate’ in land is a ‘regis-
trable title’ because some estates are excluded from registration for practical or legal reasons. Currently, a registrable estate - being an estate that must be registered on its transfer or creation is either a legal freehold (being the fee simple absolute in possession) or a legal leasehold of over seven years’ duration.
The Land Register is thus intended to provide a comprehensive picture of title ownership in England and Wales, and ‘registration of title’ has replaced ‘title deeds’ as the proof of that ownership. The LRA 2002 specifies the transactions that trigger compulsory first registration of a qualifying title and essentially these encompass all significant dealings with land. These ‘triggers’ for compulsory first registration of a previously unregistered title are:
1. the transfer of an unregistered freehold estate to another person;
2. the transfer of an existing lease in the land to another person, with more than seven
years left to run at the date of the transfer, whether for valuable consideration;
3. the grant of a legal lease of more than seven years’ duration, either out of an unreg-
istered freehold or out of an unregistered leasehold of more than seven years’ duration;
4. the creation of a first legal mortgage over an unregistered freehold or unregistered
leasehold with more than seven years left to run, which will trigger registration
both of the mortgage and of the title over which it is created.
It is sometimes said that there are three ‘principles’ underlying the system of registered
land against which we should judge the reality of the LRA 2002. The three ‘principles’ are the mirror principle, the curtain principle and the insurance principle.
The mirror principle encapsulates the idea that the register should reflect the totality of the rights and interests concerning a title of registered land. Thus, inspection of the register should reveal the identity of the owner, the nature of his ownership, any limitations on his ownership and any rights enjoyed by other persons over the land.
The curtain principle encapsulates the idea that certain equitable interests in land should be hidden behind the ‘curtain’ of a special type of trust. Thus, if a person wishes to buy registered land that is subject to a trust of land, the purchaser need be concerned only with the legal title to the land, which is held by the trustees and reflected on the title
register. He need not look behind the ‘curtain’ of the trust or worry about any equitable
rights of ownership that might exist.
The insurance principle encapsulates the idea that, if a title is duly registered, it is guaranteed by the State. This guarantee is supported by a system of statutory indemnity (i.e. monetary compensation) for any purchaser who suffers loss by reason of the conclusive nature of the register. The State insures against deficiencies, inaccuracies or other mistakes in the register.

[@ajithsidhu7183]

More on registration

[@mrt4409]

What the law when a landlord provides a tenancy agreement then calls you a licensee?