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Welcome to issue 21 of Practice and Process. It's been a busy month for practice guide updates and also in other areas. Our new information services fees came into force on Monday, as did our new addresses for business customers on the previous Monday. You can find the latter in the third Ask Adam answer. Adam has certainly been kept busy with the many questions you've sent him, but he's a man on a mission so please keep them coming! Meanwhile we hope you'll all enjoy a very happy festive season.

Anonymous: As lawyers we like certainty. In your Q&A re a sale by a mortgagee in possession [Practice and Process, issue 20, November 2024] you said this:

“Equitable charges are protected by a notice in the register and their consideration is dependent on when they were noted. If they were noted after the registration of the transferor’s charge, we will generally cancel the notice automatically on registering the transfer.”

I note the use of the word "generally" which is not categorical.

What circumstances will you not cancel a notice in such circumstances?

Adam: We cannot provide a wholly definitive list of circumstances. However, sections 2.2.4 up to and including 2.2.7 of practice guide 75 set out some of the common situations that arise in which we will not automatically cancel the notice.

Anonymous: Do you always need a court order to reinstate a lender's charge where they have released it in error?

Adam: In such a situation, the lender has two main options available to them.

The first being that they may obtain a fresh legal charge from the borrowers and then apply in the usual way for its registration. The normal registration requirements will apply, including the need for compliance with any restrictions present on the register (whether or not they had previously been complied with). It is also worth noting that if the application is in order, each charge must be registered at the date the application was deemed to be made and not the date of registration of the original charge.

The second option is as mentioned; the lender may apply to the court to have the discharge set aside on the basis that it was given by mistake. The lender may then apply to alter the register to bring it up to date under paragraph 5(b) of Schedule 4 to the Land Registration Act 2002, with the alteration being the re-registration of the charge.

With both options, the customer will need to provide confirmation of identity in the normal way. If the application is for re-registration of the charge without the consent of all the registered proprietors, they should lodge either form ID1 or ID2 or confirm that they are satisfied that sufficient steps have been taken to verify the identity of the borrower.

Anonymous: I note that the Practice Guide on first registrations has changed recently to say that we have reverted to sending original deeds to LR upon application. We are holding the Deed to the order of the Lender and need confirmation / reassurance that the originals will be returned to us, so that we may update our undertaking with the Lender. Please can you give details of the process to have original deeds returned to the firm upon sending in a First Registration. Please also confirm the address for the First Registration Application to be sent to. Thank you.

Adam: We return all documents either by Royal Mail standard post or to a UK DX box number specified by the lodging conveyancer. We do make an exception and return any original passport or driving licence using Royal Mail tracked delivery (or equivalent), because of the risks and concerns around potential identity theft.

This has been our practice for many years with first registration applications that have not used the ‘copy deeds’ process and in our experience this has worked without incident in the vast majority of cases. However, if this changes, we will of course review our approach.

With regard to the address for first registration applications to be sent to, this should be sent to our standard addresses.

Standard addresses

Address for members of the public

HM Land Registry Citizen Centre
PO Box 74
Gloucester
GL14 9BB

Royal Mail address for business customers

HM Land Registry
(Insert the name of your closest office)
PO Box 7803
Bilston
WV1 9QN

DX address for business customers

HM Land Registry
DX 427301
BILSTON 3

Helping you make complete and correct applications

It’s been a busy year for the Customer Training Team. We’ve been on Teams and out and about, meeting customers, promoting our resources and delivering training in person and online.

As well as webinars on MapSearch gaps, identity, Care Act charges and title plans, we’ve helped put together videos aimed at members of the public and portal administrators.

The highlight for us has been our new, live, online workshops. More than 2,300 customers have joined the six we’ve delivered over October and November, putting their questions to senior HM Land Registry caseworkers.

The feedback from these live events has been very positive, ranging from “Full of useful hints and tips” to “Overall, this was an incredibly helpful course”.

We’re finalising dates for our workshops next year. Don’t miss out! Our courses fill up fast, so join the mailing list to be the first to find out about our next free training course and receive your invitation.

One last quick tip for 2024: see section 6 of practice guide 50 for a handy guide to avoiding requisitions.

All the best from the Customer Training Team