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Practice Guide 56 – Formal apportionment and redemption of a rent or a rentcharge that affects a registered estate

Updated: November 2012

Update

This edition of the guide replaces the August 2012 edition. Sections 4.2 and 5.3 have been amended as a result of the Land Registration Fee Order 2012 that came into force on 22 October 2012.

Scope of this guide

This guide gives advice about the amendment of the register following an order of apportionment or a certificate of redemption given by a Secretary of State or the National Assembly for Wales where it affects a registered estate. It is aimed at conveyancers and members of the public and you should interpret references to ‘you’ accordingly. Land Registry staff will also refer to it.

1 Abbreviations and terms used

In this guide:

‘rentowner’ means either an owner of a rentcharge or a landlord.

2 Introduction

2.1 What is a rentcharge?

A rentcharge is a sum of money, payable either annually or biannually, which is a charge on land. A rentcharge is usually created in a conveyance or transfer. The party selling the land reserves an annual rent payable to them and their successors in title, which is charged on the land sold. A rentcharge is usually perpetual (for ever) but can also be for a term of years (terminable).

A rentcharge can affect freehold or leasehold estates. If it affects a leasehold estate it will always be terminable.

It is important that you do not confuse a rentcharge with the rent payable under a lease.

2.2 Apportionment and redemption of rentcharges

A rentcharge can be bought, sold and mortgaged. It can also be subject to:

apportionment – the owner of each part of land originally subject to the rentcharge is responsible for the whole sum. An order for apportionment limits the liability of the owner of a specified extent to an agreed sum being part of the whole rentcharge
redemption – this is a means of extinguishing a rentcharge following the payment of a capital sum. The Secretary of State or National Assembly for Wales will issue a redemption certificate.

3 When and how to make an application

The procedures set out in this guide only apply to registered land. If you are not sure whether or not your property is registered, you can find out by making a search of the index map. Practice Guide 10 – Official searches of the index map explains how to do this.

It is important that you send your application to the proper Land Registry office – see Practice Guide 51 – Areas served by Land Registry offices.

For details of how to obtain these or any other guides, see section 8 Enquiries and comments.

When you have established that your property is registered and which is the proper Land Registry office for your application, prepare and send us the documents referred to in the sections below. We will update the register entries for your property and issue you with a copy of those entries when we have done so.

4 Registration of an order or apportionment

These instructions apply to any order, other than one that is conditional on redemption of the rentcharge. For instructions about the registration of such a conditional order, see section 6 Registration of a certificate of redemption given pursuant to a conditional order of apportionment.

4.1 Documents required

Your application must:

be made on form AP1 (describe the nature of the application in panel 4 of the AP1 as ‘Apportionment of Rentcharge’)
provide an official copy of the order of apportionment given by the Secretary of State or National Assembly for Wales
enclose the fee (see section 4.2 Fees).

4.2 Fees

Under Article 12 of the current Land Registration Fee Order, a fee of £40 is payable.

See also section 7 Where a sale is contemplated.

5 Registration of a certificate of redemption

5.1 Documents required when rentcharge is registered

Your application must:

be made on form AP1 (describe the nature of the application in panel 4 of the AP1 as ‘Redemption of rentcharge’)
provide an official copy of the certificate of redemption given by the Secretary of State or National Assembly for Wales
enclose the fee (see section 5.3 Fees).

5.2 Documents required when rentcharge is noted

Your application must:

be made on form CN1
provide an official copy of the certificate of redemption given by the Secretary of State or National Assembly for Wales (ensure panel 8 of the CN1 is completed accordingly)
enclose the fee (see section 5.3 Fees).

5.3 Fees

Under Article 12 of the current Land Registration Fee Order, a fee of £40 is payable.

See also section 7 Where a sale is contemplated.

6 Registration of a certificate of redemption given pursuant to a conditional order of apportionment

Where an order of apportionment of a rent or rentcharge has been made which is conditional on redemption, you should not make your application to Land Registry until you have a certificate of redemption.

Your application must enclose an official copy of both:

the order of apportionment given by the Secretary of State or National Assembly for Wales
the certificate of redemption.

In all other respects, you should follow the procedure set out in section 4 Registration of an order or apportionment.

7 Where a sale is contemplated

If the property owner or rentowner has obtained an order or certificate in anticipation of a sale of the affected property, they may prefer to hand over that document to the purchaser and let them make the application to Land Registry when submitting their own. This is because no fee is payable for the noting of an apportionment or redemption if that application is sent to Land Registry together with one attracting a fee payable under Scale 1 of the current Land Registration Fee Order.

8 Enquiries and comments

Land Registry will not be able to give detailed consideration to your application in advance, but if you have a particular problem not covered by this guide, please contact Land Registry – see Contact details. If the problem is particularly complex, it may be better if you make your enquiry in writing at the Land Registry office that will process your application.

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)

You can obtain further copies of this and all our guides free of charge from Customer Support (see Contact details) or you can download them from our website.

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.

Remember

Is your property registered?
Are you sending your application to the proper Land Registry office?
Have you enclosed the correct documents?
Have you paid the correct fee?

Please note that Land Registry may be unable to process applications that are incomplete or defective and your application will risk losing its priority if we have to return it to you – see Practice Guide 49 – Return and rejection of applications for registration for more information.

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