Education Update - Estates

Published: 7th October 2009

Voluntary Registration of Education Estate
Does your estate office have a safe or strong room containing lots of old title deeds gathering dust? If so, in may be worth considering making an application to the Land Registry to voluntarily register your organisation's title to its estate.

Generally if your organisation acquired parts of its estate prior to the 1970's (or later in some areas) it is likely that the title to the property will not have previously been registered at the Land Registry.

There are a number of advantages to having title to the estate registered at the Land Registry:

1) Certainty of Ownership - Where the Land Registry register an organisation as proprietor of a piece of land, registration in conclusive proof of ownership. If a third party manages to obtain a fraudulent transfer of the title of land owned by the organisation, the organisation is entitled to an indemnity from the Land Registry for any loss suffered. By contrast, where the land is unregistered, the organisation would have to try to pursue the fraudulent third party for any loss suffered;

2) Reduced Risk of Squatters Obtaining Adverse Possession - Where an organisation's title to a property is unregistered, it is possible for a squatter to obtain title to the property by occupying the property for 12 years without the organisation's consent. By contrast, where an organisation's title to the property is registered, the Land Registry will give the organisation notice of the squatter's application for possession and the organisation will then have two years to begin legal proceedings to remove the squatter before the squatter can obtain title.

3) Ease of Establishing Title - Where the organisation's title to a property is registered, it is considerably easier to prove ownership of the property to third parties such as prospective tenant's, lenders (for redevelopment finance) or purchasers in the event of a disposal of the property.

4) Opportunity to Review Estate - Many organisations have undertaken voluntary registration of their estate as part of a wider strategic review of their estate requirements to identify any surplus sites that may be suitable for disposal. Registration of the title allows the organisation to review the title to their estate to flush out ahead of time any issues such as boundary disputes or covenants restricting development and address them before they become an issue. Such issues can cause problems when there is a tight timeframe for redeveloping the property (to be ready for a new academic year) or to dispose of surplus land. In the vast majority of cases, any issues uncovered during the registration process can be easily resolved and title obtained to areas where, for example, title deeds have been lost or the organisation has acquired title to the property by possession.

The Land Registry are very keen to register the land holdings of educational institutions which would not otherwise come onto the register following transfers of ownership. The Land Registry are often willing to agree to register an organisation's whole estate for a single discounted fee of £690 (a 25% discount on the usual fee for the transfer of a single piece of land worth over £1,000,000). The Land Registry have recently completed registration of an organisation's estate consisting of nine city centre sites and several hundred acres of agricultural holdings for the single discounted registration fee.