What is a Voluntary First Registration?

Voluntary first registration is to voluntarily register your residential property for the first time at HM Land Registry.

Registration of your property at the Land Registry is the official recording of your property ownership with the Land Registry's Land Register, which is the official ownership list for property in England and Wales.

Historically, all land in England and Wales was unregistered. However, the Land Registration Act 1925 introduced compulsory registration of land with the Land Registry.

The Land Registration Act 1925 was phased until 1990 when any trigger events to a property, such as a sale or mortgage, sparked a first registration.

The Land Registry aims to achieve 'comprehensive registration' by 2030, that is, for most of the land in England and Wales to be registered.

The Land Registry acknowledges that there will always be some land where the owners are difficult to identify, which is why it aims to achieve 'comprehensive' rather than 'total' registration.

Nevertheless, this is an ambitious goal and, therefore, is heavily reliant upon voluntary first registrations.

There are a multitude of benefits of voluntary first registration, which are set out below:

• Proof of your ownership is held centrally by the Land Registry, and copies of the title register confirming your ownership and any other title documents can easily be obtained online for a small fee. You will not have to worry about misplacing the paper deeds, or if the property is being sold on behalf of your estate by your executors after your death, it will be much easier to sell if your executors do not have to track down the deeds first. Deeds are often hidden in a drawer or box in your house, held by your mortgage lender or in the deeds store of the solicitors who acted for you when you purchased the property many years ago. This can make it hard for your executors of family members to locate when the deeds are needed.
• Protecting you against property fraud – Property fraud is prevalent, and you are more at risk if the property is not registered with the Land Registry, especially if the property is empty or not mortgaged. If your property is registered, you can sign up to receive free property alerts from the Land Registry, where you will be notified if someone applies to change your property's title register, such as if someone tried to register the property in a different name or use your property to take out a mortgage. If your property is registered, you can also restrict your title to prevent the Land Registry from registering a sale or mortgage on your property unless a solicitor or conveyancer certifies that you did this.
• Peace of mind – Taking action now will minimise delays and fees when you are ready to sell the property, as the title documentation necessary for the conveyancing will be readily available from the Land Registry and can be quickly obtained online by your solicitor and provided to the buyer's solicitors. If your property is unregistered, your solicitor will need to obtain the paper deeds from you or wherever they are held, examine them and produce an epitome of title for the buyer's solicitors to demonstrate how you have come to own the property and, likewise, the buyer's solicitors will need to examine these documents which all costs time and money.
• Boundaries of your property are clearly defined – When the property is registered for the first time at the Land Registry, the Land Registry will produce a title plan showing the property's boundaries, which should accord with those on the ground. If you identify any discrepancies, such as if some garden area or driveway is missing, you can rectify this rather than wait for it to come to light when a neighbour challenges your ownership of the land, or you are selling the property.
• Cheaper registration fees – The Land Registry will charge to register the property for the first time or any change of ownership. The cost will depend on the property's value, but the Land Registry will charge more if the property is being registered for the first time because of a trigger event such as a sale or mortgage. The Land Registry offers a 25% discount on the registration fee if it is a voluntary first registration.

The Land Registry has special requirements for these circumstances.

The Land Registry requests that you provide the following information:

• Information so that they can identify the correct boundaries of the property on the Ordnance Survey map.
• A signed statutory declaration or statement of truth providing a detailed account of the events which led up to the loss or destruction of the title deeds, for example, who had possession of them, what proactive steps have been taken to retrieve them and where they were stored.
• Evidence of possession.
• A reconstruction of the title as far as possible.
• Details of any overriding interests which you have over the land.
• A signed undertaking to return any lost deeds to the Land Registry if they are found in the future.
• Your identification documents as the applicant.  
• The correct fee.