Make Sure your Plans are up to Scratch

The Land Registration Act 2002 has produced one change which has started to cause problems for people taking on leases which need to be registered. Since the Act came into force, leases of seven years or more have had to be registered. Previously, the requirement was for leases of 21 years to be registered. Leases with more than seven years to run which are being assigned also have to be registered.

One unanticipated problem resulting from the changes has been that the plans accompanying many leases are not in a form which complies with the standards set by the Land Registry, so applications to register assignments of leases are frequently rejected, for example, because the measurements used on the plans are in Imperial, not metric units.

The Land Registry has issued guidelines for leases, which outline the criteria they apply. Many of these are quite basic, such as the need to include a North compass point to show the orientation of the plan of the property, and to state the scale used in any plan.

It is important to find out early on in the process if the plan will be acceptable, as having plans redrafted can be both an expensive process and a source of delay.