Chapter 3 Key facts checklists

Registered land

Registered land is land where title has been registered at the Land Registry. The objective behind registered land is to create a register which accurately reflects the state of registered property, both in terms of its current owner and any third party proprietary interests affecting it. In theory, a purchaser need look no further than the register when making enquiries about a piece of registered land. (In reality, the presence of overriding interests which bind a purchaser despite appearing nowhere on the register means that a purchaser must look beyond the register.)
Unregistered land can be brought into the registered land system either by the owner voluntarily applying to be registered or compulsorily upon the occurrence of certain events, notably sale of the freehold, the grant of a lease of more than seven years, or the grant of a protected first legal mortgage. Failure to register title when required can lead to the loss of legal title to that land (ss 4, 6, and 7 Land Registration Act (LRA) 2002).
Once registered, subsequent disposals of the freehold, or leasehold of more than seven years in duration, must be completed by registration to confer legal title (s 27 LRA 2002).
When registering title to land, the specific class of title registered will reflect the strength of that title; with the strongest and most common class registered being absolute title.
In principle, third party proprietary interests will only affect a purchaser of registered land where they have been entered on the register, typically as a notice but sometimes (where a beneficial interest under a trust) as a restriction.
However, where interests have not been correctly entered on the register they may still bind a purchaser of registered land if they meet the requirements of an overriding interest under Sch 3 para 2.
In any case, certain interests are not required to be entered on the register at all and yet are still deemed to be binding upon a purchaser of registered land, notably overriding interests under Sch 3 paras 1 and 3.