Define: Registered Conveyancing

Registered conveyancing refers to the process of transferring legal ownership of real property through registration with a government authority, typically a land registry or registrar of deeds. This process involves the preparation and execution of legal documents, such as deeds or conveyancing instruments, to effectuate the transfer of title from the seller to the buyer. In registered conveyancing systems, the details of the property transaction, including the names of the parties, description of the property, and any encumbrances or rights affecting the property, are recorded in a public register maintained by the government authority. Registration serves to provide certainty and security of title by establishing a clear chain of ownership and interests in the property. It also facilitates public access to information about property ownership and rights, enabling interested parties to conduct due diligence and verify the legal status of real property. Registered conveyancing systems vary by jurisdiction, but they generally aim to streamline and standardise the process of property transactions and provide legal protections for property owners and purchasers.

The process of buying or selling an estate on land that is registered with the land registry. In principle, registered conveyancing is simpler and less risky for the purchaser than unregistered conveyancing because most encumbrances on the seller’s title will be disclosed on the register against the registered title itself (not the seller). At the time of writing, the Editing Land Registration Act (2002) had just come into force, displacing the 1925 Act. Although the 2002 Act makes many technical amendments to the law of registered conveyancing, the basic principles remain the same. When the seller buys a registered estate, he gets the title as indicated on the register, but subject to any third-party minor interests noted on the register and any overriding interest that may exist. An ideal system of land registration would be a perfect implementation of the mirror principle, but the continuing need to accept the existence of overriding interests prevents this perfect implementation. However, the 2002 Act substantially reduces the number and scope of overriding interests.

It was always the intention of the legislators that the doctrine of notice has little or no application to registered conveyancing. If an interest is noted on the registered title against the registered title, this is equivalent to the purchaser of the estate having notice of it. If the interest is not so noted, then the purchaser is, or should be, deemed to have given no notice. It presents a problem for the courts if the purchaser is patently aware of an interest that affects the title but claims not to be bound by it because it was not registered. In Peffer v. Rigg (1976), the judge gave effect to an unprotected minor interest by interpreting s. 3(xxi) of the Land Registration Act (1925) as implying that a ‘purchaser for value’ had to be acting in ‘good faith. Since the purchaser and the vendor were effectively collaborating in fraud, the purchase could not really be deemed to be in good faith. The judge also held that, even if the good-faith test were satisfied, the court had jurisdiction to impose a constructive trust on the purchaser on general equitable principles.

This problem—holding that registration is equivalent to notice, even where to do so allows fraud to be perpetrated—is not new to registered land. For example, in Midland Bank v. Green (1981), the Court of Appeal was prepared to hold the purchaser bound to a prior interest that ought to have been registered as a land charge but was not. The decision was taken on the basis that the purchaser had not offered ‘value’, and was thus not a ‘purchaser for value. This reasoning is similar to that of the judge in Peffer. However, the House of Lords reversed this decision and restored the strict letter of the law.

See the registered title for information about the register entries themselves.

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This glossary post was last updated: 10th April, 2024.