Do you own property which is registered at the Land Registry?
Have you moved address since you bought the property?
Do you know what address the Land Registry have on file for you?
You may be wondering why this is important. If you own or lease a property which is registered at the Land Registry you will have an “address for service” on file at the Land Registry. This is the address by your name in the “Proprietorship Register” on the registers of title for the Property.
It is important that your “address for service” is kept up to date because this is the address where the Land Registry send correspondence and notices to you which could affect your legal rights. Sometimes these notices give you warning of a course of action the Land Registry propose to take. If you fail to object within a certain period of time – sometimes as little as 15 working days – the Land Registry will assume you have no objection.
For example if a squatter wishes to claim title to part of your property it will make an application to the Land Registry. If your property is registered, the Land Registry will serve a notice on you giving you a period to object. If at the end of this period you haven’t objected, the Land Registry will cancel your title to the relevant land and register the land in the name of the squatter even if you had valid grounds for objection. It is no defence that you did not receive the notice if it was correctly sent to your address for service. If the letter or notice is returned by the Post Office as “unknown at this address” or “gone away” or if the address is an email address and there is an undeliverable bounce back, the Land Registry will take no further action and take no further steps to trace you.
You can therefore see how important it is to keep your address for service up to date. The Land Registry will only change your address if you ask them to do so. It will not automatically do so if, for example, you change your company’s registered office - you need to make a separate application. The Land Registry do not charge a fee for changing an address for service. You can have up to three addresses for service on the register, one of which must be a postal address but the others can be an email address or Document Exchange address.
We can assist you by checking your address for service for your properties and making an application to change your address or add new addresses to the register. If you would like further information please contact Colin Parker on 0121 214 3524 or by email to colin.parker@anthonycollins.com.