Status of unregistered title while first registration is pending

Practitioners are reminded that, by virtue of rule 51 of the Land Registration Rules 2012, until such time as an application for first registration of an unregistered title has been successfully completed by the settlement of a draft folio or draft entry for a folio in the Land Registry, that title remains unregistered and must be treated as such.

It therefore follows that:

1. Where a purchaser acquires an unregistered title, which becomes compulsory registerable by virtue of that acquisition, the deed of assurance to the purchaser, together with any mortgage or other relevant document, should be registered in the Registry of Deeds as expeditiously as possible in order to secure priority. Once registration in the Registry of Deeds is complete, the application for first registration may be made.
2. When purchasing property the title to which is unregistered and that is, at the time of entering into the contract, lodged in the Land Registry for first registration, the purchaser’s solicitor must investigate the unregistered title in the usual manner. In addition, it is recommended that the purchaser’s solicitor would have sight of the vendor’s application for first registration pending in the Land Registry, together with any rulings on title raised and responses thereto. If the contract for sale is not conditional upon completion of the application for first registration and the vendor’s application for first registration has not been completed by the closing date, the purchaser’s solicitor should ensure, in drafting the deed of assurance to the purchaser, that he or she treats the title as unregistered and uses the appropriate words of limitation. In these circumstances, the vendor may not be described in the deed of assurance as “the person entitled to be the registered owner”. Once completion of the sale has taken place, the purchaser’s solicitor should register the deed of assurance in the Registry of Deeds, as referred to in paragraph (a) above, and subsequently lodge the purchaser’s own application for first registration of the title. When drafting this application for first registration, the purchaser’s solicitor may take into account the existing statement of title lodged by the vendor’s solicitor, but the decision to do so should be made based on the quality of that statement of title