4. Registration of Title to Land

Question 1

What are the four main triggering events requiring unregistered land to be registered?

Answer 1

1. Grant of first legal mortgage
2. Transfer, e.g. conveyance on sale, assent, deed of gift
3. Grant of lease exceeding seven years
4. Assignment of lease with more than seven years remaining

Question 2

Can the Registrar extend the two month window to register unregistered land?

Answer 2

yes, but provided there is good reason to do so

Question 3

What is the impact of a failed legal registration becoming an equitable estate?

Answer 3

It will lose priority to other transactions which create interests in the estate before defect is cured

Question 4

What are the five classes of title?

Answer 4

1. Absolute freehold
2. Qualified
3. Possessory
4. Good leasehold
5. Absolute leasehold

Question 5

What are the two interests absolute freehold title is subject to?

Answer 5

1. Interests on the register, e.g. charges, notices, restrictions
2. Overriding interests

Note that absolute freehold title is the best kind of title.

Question 6

When does qualified title arise?

Answer 6

Where there is a specific defect in the title to the property.

• upgradable by providing evidence of title to the Land Registry which remedies the reason why the qualified title was granted in the first place.

Question 7

What is possessory title based on, and does it affect rights which subsisted on the date of registration?

Answer 7

Factual possession of the land, and does not affect rights which pre-dated registration

Question 8

Good leasehold title is essentially absolute title for a lease, save for what limitation?

Answer 8

It does not extend to the freehold estate or other superior leases, therefore the leaseholder is subject to these.

Question 9

What is absolute leasehold title?

Answer 9

Good leasehold title where HMLR has inspected the freehold and checked for superior leases

Question 10

How can good leasehold and possessory title be upgraded, and what are they upgraded to?

Answer 10

Good leasehold becomes absolute leasehold if freehold title is produced.

Possessory becomes absolute freehold if possessory title is not challenged for 12 years since it was granted.

Question 11

How can a party with an interest in unregistered land ensure that they are notified if an application for registration is made regarding their land?

Answer 11

Register a caution against first registration

• Warned of any attempts to register land.
• Given 15 working days (or longer if agreed) to object.
• if not, caution is cancelled.

Question 12

What are four types of registrable dispositions ?

Answer 12

1. Transfer of freehold estate
2. Grant of legal lease with more than seven years
3. Legal easement
4. Legal Mortgage

Need to be protected by registration to be bind on 3rd parties.

Question 13

In the registered system, when does title pass?

Answer 13

When the disposition is registered at HMLR

Question 14

What are the three registers on the register of title?

Answer 14

1. Property register
2. Proprietorship register
3. Charges register

Question 15

What appears on the Property register?

Answer 15

Any right benefitting the property, such as a right of way of neighbouring land

Question 16

What three things appear on the Proprietorship register?

Answer 16

1. Class of title
2. Name(s) of current estate holder(s)
3. Any restrictions affecting the property

Question 17

What are the two main examples of third party interests that appear on the Charges register?

Answer 17

1. Legal mortgage of registered land
2. Legal easement (benefitting adjacement land)

Question 18

What are the two ways a legal easement can be completed by registration?

Answer 18

1. On the charges register of the servient tenement (burdened land), or
2. On the property register of the dominant tenement (benefitting land)

Question 19

What is a restriction?

Answer 19

An entry on the proprietorship register used to prevent any dealing with the land otherwise than in accordance with the terms of the restriction

Question 20

What is an overriding interest in the registered system?

Answer 20

Interest which is binding on both the proprietor and a person who acquires an interest despite the fact not appearing on the affected register of title

Question 21

What are the three overriding interests in the registered system?

Answer 21

1. Legal leases for seven years or less
2. Legal easement or profit* created by prescription or implied grant*
3. Interest of person in actual occupation

Question 22

When will a legal easement not be overriding in the registered system?

Answer 22

1. Not within actual knowledge of new purchaser. OR
2. Not been obvious on reasonable inspection of land. OR
3. Right was not exercised in the previous year from the date of the disposition

Question 23

What two things defeat an overriding interest of a person in actual occupation?

Answer 23

1. Buyer inquires about occupier and extent of occupation not disclosed or
2. Occupation not obvious via inspection at the time of disposition, and not in actual knowledge of the buyer

Question 24

What must a person claiming the overriding interest have in addition to mere occupation?

Answer 24

A property right in the land, e.g. tenancy or right to remain

Question 25

What four factors will the court take into account in determining if there is actual occupation?

Answer 25

1. Degree and continuity of permanence
2. Intentions, wishes, and personal circumstances of the person in occupation
3. Length of and reasons for absences
4. Nature of the property

Question 26

The right of occupation of whom specifically is not capable of being an overriding interest, and how is that protected instead?

Answer 26

The right of occupation of a non-owning spouse. The right is instead registered as a notice on the registered proprietor’s register of title.

Question 27

In the registered system, how is the process of adverse possession different?

Answer 27

1. Period is 10 years instead of 12
2. Squatter does not acquire any rights automatically
3. They merely receive a right to apply for registration of title at the end of the period
4. Landowner given opportunity to object, and if they do the application will usually fail
5. Other elements are the same: actual, exclusive possession, without landowner permission

Question 28

In what three situations may an application for adverse possession still be granted even though the landowner objects?

Answer 28

1. Unconscionable for the proprietor/landowner to seek to displace the applicant (i.e. on the facts, applicant should be regarded as the proprietor)
2. Applicant is for some other reason entitled to be proprietor
3. Reasonable mistake as to boundaries

Question 29

Where a lease is merely equitable, how might tenant still bind third-parties ?

Answer 29

under actual occupation

Question 30

What is one point to note about overreaching and mortgages?

Answer 30

if the mortgage is advanced to two legal owners, then the mortgagee will overreach any third party interest.

Question 31

What third-party interest are protected as restrictions on the register of title?

Answer 31

Trusts of land and leasehold restrictive covenants.

• rest are all protected by notice on charges register.
• failure to means they will not bind any future purchasers.

Question 32

When will a lease for seven years or less not be binding as an overriding interest?

Answer 32

If the lease is equitable, in this case, it must be protected as a notice at the LR.
* although equitable leases can be binding via AO.

Question 33

What is a notice entered at the Land Registry?

Answer 33

Entry in the register that outlines the burden of a third-party interest in the legal estate.