LR Requirements

Land Registry Requirements

You may still have questions about Land Registry Plans and what is required for them – we know that they are not the simplest things to understand and, all too often, individuals who are not knee-deep in the property marketing business and find that need a plan in place are left without a clue of what Land Registry Plan requirements even are or how they can be fulfilled.

We’ve compiled a small glossary of all the information you might need about Lease Plans, Title Plans, the HM Land Registry and more.

10.

All areas included in the demise of the property should be clearly defined.

What is a Land Registry Compliant Plan?

A Land Registry Compliant Plan refers to Lease Plans, Title Plans and various other kinds of proposals that conform to the Land Registration Act 2002; the Land Registry is the official government organisation made to keep track of property and land ownership throughout the UK. Land Registry Compliant Plans need to stay regularly updated so all information can be relied upon.

Whether a property needs a Lease Plan or a Title Plan depends on whether it is classed as Leasehold or Freehold. Leasehold properties are properties owned by a landlord and leased out to tenants for a limited period – they require a Lease Plan in place. Freehold properties are fully owned by one individual – they need a Title Plan. Lease Plans are mandatory for properties with lease terms of 7 years or more – either new ones or existing ones that haven’t come to an end yet.

The overall purpose of Lease and Title Plans is to provide a document showing a graphic representation of the extent of the land that an individual claims ownership of and a clear map of everything within its boundaries. These documents support the accuracy of claims made in the property description and can help settle any land ownership disputes. Further information on Lease and Title Plans can be found on their respective pages.

Land Registry Lease Plans

Land Registry Title Plans

When is a Land Registry Plan Needed?

You may need an approved Land Registry compliant Lease Plan to be written up for a number of possible reasons:

Correcting inadequate, outdated or non-compliant Lease Plans – Paying for poorly formatted Lease Plans can feel like a frustrating waste of time and money, so we guarantee total compliance with any replacement plans you need drawn up at short notice.
Buying or selling a commercial leasehold property on a lease of 7 years or more – Commercial leasehold properties need Land Registry plans to prove their validity on the market.
Extensions to the number of years on a lease – Providing a Lease Plan will be part of the application process for lease term extensions.
First time registration of a Leasehold property – A recently constructed Leasehold property, for example, will need to be registered.
Recent conversion of a Freehold property into Leasehold flats – It’s entirely possible for Freehold properties to be converted into a Leasehold licence and vice versa. If a Title Plan needs to be swapped out for a Lease Plan when this conversion occurs, we’ve got you covered.
The demise of the Leasehold property has changed – The demise of a property can naturally evolve over time. For example, a new loft conversion can increase the amount of space inside a property. So, it’s important for the documentation to reflect any alterations that have occurred.

In turn, a Land Registry compliant Title Plan may be required for the following reasons:

Correcting incorrect, outdated or non-compliant Title Plans – Just as Lease Plans need replacing when they begin to show their age, any outdated or irrelevant Title Plans can be swapped out for newer, more accurate editions!
Providing supporting evidence in a boundary dispute – A Title Plan is an invaluable piece of evidence that can be used to settle boundary disputes that may arise between landowners, showing exactly who owns what.
A piece of land is sold, gifted or otherwise transferred from one neighbour to another – Though Freehold landowners have greater control over their plots, new Title Plans can be issued whenever land changes hands between neighbours, family members or other claimants.
An existing title is being split into separate titles to be sold or transferred – If you ever decide to split your Freehold title, you can retain your original Title ID number while the piece of land that you wish to sever off will be given a new number. Submitting a Title Plan with good reasoning for your decision to split the titling can convince the Land Registry to give the okay.
Newly constructed houses need registering – And of course, a new-build house will need accurate plans to be submitted as part of the registration process.

All sorts of individuals and organisations will find themselves booking for Land Registry plans at some point in their lives, including but certainly not limited to:

Landlords
Investors
Estate Agents
Solicitors
Property Developers
Property Surveyors
Retailers
… and so on.

What is Involved?

Upon discussing requirements with you, we will endeavour to answer any further questions you may have before providing a quote for our service. At this point, you can make additional requests for an in-person property visit and inspection, all at your convenience. If you do not require this, we can immediately put our plans into production!

If you decide to continue with a site visit, our surveyor will gather as much information and measurements as they can before applying any additional data gathered from the inspection to the Land Registry plans.

CAD stands for Computer-Aided Design – it is the digitised production process which all of our Land Registry plans are filtered through before application. Once any visits are made and CAD production is completed, you will be emailed draft PDFs of your plans, which you can then review and provide feedback on before you make approvals of the work. Your solicitor can also be sent a PDF copy at your request.

Any reasonable amendments are carried out FREE of charge!

At the end of the process, you can receive finalised versions of your compliant plans in the post and via email once all payments have been made. Then you can sit back and relax while the Land Registry officials conduct their final approvals!

Do You Need to Visit My Property?

Not necessarily, since our planning team can formulate accurate Lease and Title Plans using readily available information. If existing plans are already in place, we can draw data from them to create newer editions. In some cases, a property visit may be highly recommended or more essential to the process, particularly if you are dissatisfied with the suitability or accuracy of previous plans. However, in the majority of cases, it’s an optional bonus that’s there for your selection!

How Long Does It Take?

We understand that Land Registry compliant plans are often urgently required, therefore we make sure to deliver a fast turnaround time. Give or take, the overall process for a Land Registry plan to be ready for application should take about a week – 2-3 days for any site visit bookings, then a further 2-3 days for CAD production and dissemination of draft documents to the involved parties. We aim to make our service even faster and more efficient with each passing project.

For an additional charge, we offer priority next-day service – this deal is for especially urgent orders that need the most attention.

What are the Land Registry Requirements?

The last thing we want is for anybody to misconstrue our friends at the Land Registry as part of some overbearing bureaucracy with an insurmountable list of rules, regulations and penalties – the truth is, their guidance for successful applications is reasonable and simple to follow. So without further ado, here is an outline of the HM Land Registry’s guidance for preparing plans for Land Registry applications:

The General Guidance is as Follows:

Accurate measurements – Land Registry plans need to be drawn to a stated scale based on the metric measurements made of the property. Everything within the property extents must be reflected in the plan drawings. Per our mission statement, we promise total accuracy to our customers.

Keep drawings clear, consistent and identifiable – There are common practices used by planning organisations to keep the plans consistent to the government’s Ordnance Survey map, which shows a much larger map of the surrounding areas across the country.

Northerly orientation – The drawings should all show the correct orientation from a northern point. This helps to keep the plan consistent with the government’s Ordnance Survey maps of the surrounding area.

Do not imply that the lease or title plan is a draft version – You wouldn’t have much faith in crossing a suspension bridge that was only half-complete – the same principle applies to Land Registry plans. Phrases that can get a Land Registry application dismissed include:

“For identification purposes only.”
“Do not scale from this drawing.”
Draft copies are a useful tool for any Land Registry planning process, so it’s a surprisingly common mistake to leave a “Draft” watermark or any similar wording to the above phrases on a finalised plan document. At Lease Planners, we ensure that this never happens by rigorously checking all of our documents before sending off any applications.

Defining the Property or Land Subject to Your Application, the Plan Should Show:

The procedure for compiling defined data for the Land Registry plan is similar for lease plans, title plans and most of the other packages, with the land subject to your application been displayed in the plan with the following details:

The extents and boundaries of the whole property area, including any previously undefined boundaries.
All areas within the central buildings, including rooms, doorways, thoroughfares, fixtures and so on.
All accompanying structures such as garages, conservatories, gardens, sheds, verandas, parking spaces and pathways.
Clearly defined metric measurements within 2 decimal places, all contextualised with a bar scale included somewhere on the document.
Proper shading, edging and hatching on the drawings.
A colour code chart reflecting how the plan defines each type of boundary (try to cut down on easily confusable colours, e.g. red and orange)

Floor Levels, Flats, Maisonettes and Small Areas of Land, the Plan Should Show:

If you need a plan for smaller areas of land under your possession, see below for a dedicated list of guidelines for how their plans should look:

The designs should take a holistic view, showing how the property sits in relation to the wider footprint of the building and surroundings as shown on the Ordnance Survey maps.
Separate plans may need to be drafted in order to convey the extents of multiple floor levels – if they remain unseparated on the same plan, they must be clearly labelled as different numbered floors.
Intricate details of interior extents and boundaries, such as internal divisions in a leasehold building.
It is possible to produce separate plans with larger scales such as 1:100 or 1:200 when small details require more visibility.
The plans must conform with the verbal description in the deed.
The plan must correctly show all markings referred to in the deed.

What Happens When a Compliant Land Registry Plan is Not Provided?

If a compliant plan is not provided to the Land Registry, the overwhelming likelihood is that the application will be rejected at an early stage.

Providing inaccurate or poorly designed plans are an annoying detriment to the organisation’s efficient service. Investing in getting another plan produced and re-submitted wastes further time and money that everyone would rather avoid.

Proceeding with a commercial strategy without any approved plan to accompany it can result in a hefty fine.