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Practice Guide 41 – Developing estates – registration services
Supplement 6 – Voluntary application to note overriding interests

Updated: August 2010

Update

This edition of the guide replaces the March 2003 edition. Only minor grammatical and cosmetic amendments have been made to the guide.

Scope of this guide

This supplement is aimed at developers and their legal advisers and explains how voluntary applications can be made to note overriding interests on the registers of developing estates.

1 Introduction

Anyone applying to register a registrable disposition of a registered estate has a duty under s.71, Land Registration Act 2002 and r.57, Land Registration Rules 2003 to disclose certain overriding interests on applications to register a registrable disposition of a registered estate. This means that each time application is made to register a transfer, lease, charge or grant of an easement the applicant must disclose these interests. See Practice Guide 15 – Overriding interests and their disclosure for more information.

If these interests affect more than one plot and are noted on your register before development commences there are advantages to all parties.

2 Advantages of voluntary application

For developers.

Once an interest has been noted on the register you will not need to reveal it as an overriding interest and provide documentation to each purchaser.
You will have less correspondence to deal with from us. This is because each time we intend to enter notice of overriding interest disclosed on an application to register a transfer, lease etc on your register we have to send you a notice.

For purchasers/lessees.

Most interests will already be on the register before they commit to a purchase. There will be fewer unregistered interests that override registrable dispositions to satisfy themselves about and disclose on their application for registration.

For Land Registry.

We will only need to consider interests once, rather than on each application.

3 How to apply

Apply using form AN1, enclosing any supporting documentation. If you wish you may attach form DI to the AN1 to assist you in setting out the relevant details. You need to lodge only one AN1 application regardless of the number of overriding interests you are applying to note. If there is a restriction against noting or a caution against dealings on your register you should contact the Land Registry office that will deal with the application before lodging it for further advice. Your application should accompany application for estate plan approval or approval of draft transfer or lease.

4 What Land Registry will do

Provided we are satisfied with the evidence lodged we will usually enter notice on the register. These interests will then be apparent to purchasers and lessees when they receive official copies of the developer’s register.

5 Enquiries and comments

If you have a particular problem which is not covered by this supplement, please contact the relevant Land Registry office in advance of your application. If the matter is particularly complex, it may be better if you make your enquiry in writing.

Practice Guide 51 – Areas served by Land Registry offices is available free of charge from Customer Support (see Contact details) and gives a full list of areas served by each office. You can also find this information our website www.landregistry.gov.uk

If you have any comments or suggestions about our guides, please send them to:

Central Operations Group
Land Registry
Trafalgar House
1 Bedford Park
Croydon
CR0 2AQ

(DX 8888 Croydon 3)

Land Registry advisory policy

We offer advice to our customers through our publications and Customer Support information and through the day-to-day handling of applications.

We provide factual information including official copies of registers, title plans and documents, searches and details of our forms and fees.

We provide procedural advice to explain how the land registration system works and how to make applications correctly. This includes:

advice in advance of an application, where this is requested
where an application is defective, advice as to the nature of the problem and what options, if any, are available to put it right
an approval service for estate layout plans and certain other land registration documents.

There are limits to the advice that we will provide. We will not provide legal advice.

This means that:

we will not approve the evidence to be produced in support of a registration application before we receive the application
apart from procedural advice, we will not advise on what action to take
we will not recommend a professional adviser but can explain how to find one.

We provide advice only about real cases, not about theoretical circumstances. We will not express a view on questions where the law is complex or unclear except where the question arises on a live registration application.

In providing this factual information and procedural advice we will:

be impartial
recognise that others may be affected by what we say
avoid any conflict of interest.

Contact details

For customer enquiries and to request this publication in an alternative format please contact Customer Support at customersupport@landregistry.gsi.gov.uk or telephone 0844 892 1111, or 0844 892 1122 for a Welsh-speaking service, from Monday to Friday between 8am and 6pm. Calls cost 3p a minute on a BT standard tariff, in addition to the current set up/connection charge. Calls from other tariffs, service providers and mobile phones may cost more. We do not receive any revenue from these calls.

To obtain copies of this and all our other guides, free of charge:

view/download guides in English and Welsh at www.landregistry.gov.uk
contact Customer Support.

Information in this guide

The information in this publication is for the purpose of providing general guidance about Land Registry's procedures and policies. It is intended only as a guide and does not cover every situation that may arise. It also does not limit Land Registry's ability to use its discretion when appropriate to do so, within the land registration legislation.

Chief Land Registrar

Not to be reproduced without permission from The Forms Unit, Land Registry (under the delegated authority from the Controller of HMSO), Trafalgar House, 1 Bedford Park, Croydon CR0 2AQ