HM Land Registry

Land Registry or His Majesty's Land Registry is a United Kingdom government office which started in 1862.  It publicly records interests in land in England and Wales.  It answers to the Ministry of Justice.

Purpose
The office records the owner of land and legal rights over land.  It has recorded about half of the land in England and Wales, and they request owners to record the rest.

Persons make payments to the Land Registry to record land or for copies of the records.  The British Government does not make payments to the Land Registry.

Offices
The Land Registry has 24 offices in England and Wales and a head office at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London, England.  It wants to shut the offices in York and Harrow.

The head of the Land Registry is called the Chief Land Registrar and Chief Executive.

History
In 1857 a government committee said there should be a record of land.  The Land Registry started after the Land Registry Act 1862.  The failure of this law led to a new law in 1875.  But this law was also a failure because persons could decide if they wanted to record their land, and most persons decided not to.  In 1897 a new law forced persons in London to record their land when they sold it.  Step by step this law was applied to the rest of England and Wales by 1990.  A new law – the Land Registration Act 2002 – modernised the law and made possible the electronic sale of land.

 Other websites 

 Land Registry website
 Registers of Scotland website 

Category:Departments of the United Kingdom Government
Category:Government agencies of the United Kingdom
Category:1862 establishments in the United Kingdom