Registering land: to register land Land Registry

Registering land:
How to register land with the Land Registry

Article

12 mins read

Updated on 15 April 2025

Our subject expert
Rachel Jones

Partner
- Commercial Property

If you own or manage property in England and Wales, understanding how to register land with the Land Registry is crucial. Since 1990, registering property has been compulsory, yet even today not all land is properly documented.

For developers, property investors, and business owners, registration isn’t just about compliance - it’s about security, efficiency, and future-proofing your assets. A properly registered title simplifies transactions, protects against ownership disputes, and makes it easier to sell, lease, or develop land. In this guide, our commercial property solicitors break down the key things you need to know about land registration. We’ll cover when and why registration is required, the step-by-step process, and how legal expertise can help you avoid costly mistakes.

For quite some time now in the UK, it has been a legal requirement to register land or property that you’ve:

• traded or exchanged with another landowner, also known as ‘land swaps’
• purchased
• inherited
• received as a gift
• mortgaged
• certain leases - those of more than 7 years
• rights contained in some leases

In other words, if property changes hands or is mortgaged, it must be registered with the Land Registry. Once registered, in general you must continue to inform the Land Registry of any dealings with the land including:

• changes to the title
• mortgages
• leases over seven years
• any easements affecting the land

Failure to do so can have serious consequences on your property ownership and rights.

If you acquired your land or property pre-1990 and have not mortgaged it since, it is likely to be unregistered. In this case, you can choose to register it at any time by making a voluntarily application to the Land Registry. You don’t have to wait until you sell or mortgage, and in fact, registering land prior to this makes the process much smoother.

Most conveyancing solicitors will apply to register land that you have purchased as part of their conveyancing service. You may find this referred to as ‘post-completion requirements’ in your paperwork. This is because we can only make the application on your behalf to the Land Registry once the property purchase has completed. The same applies if you mortgage property – the lender will require the loan to be noted against your property at the Land Registry, also known as a ‘charge.’

In other situations where a solicitor may not be involved, such as if a family member gifts property to you, or you agree to trade parcels of land with someone you know personally – you must take steps to formally record the transfer of ownership.

Asking an experienced commercial property solicitor to handle the Land Registry formalities for you may very well be worth your time. In particular, you will benefit from:

• Expertise
  : as conveyancers, we are familiar with the minefield of procedures and processes to register land, which can be difficult to navigate if you haven’t done this before.
• Time-saving
  : registering land can be a time-consuming process, from gathering all the correct documents to dealing with any questions or concerns raised by the Land Registry. Instructing solicitors to take care of the paperwork means you have the time to focus on your business. Most law firms also have online business accounts with the Land Registry which are quicker than paper applications.
• certification
  : as solicitors, we can verify your identity and certify any documents for you. If you handle the process as a private individual, you need to complete additional forms and arrange to certify any documents submitted as part of your application, which are likely to come at a cost.
• Risk-mitigation
  : the sheer consequences of getting it wrong may be reason enough to seek the help of a legal professional. If registered incorrectly, there can be all sorts of financial, legal and practical implications, such as:
  • the…