Module 2 · Chapter 3

Reading the Title

Before a buyer is bound, its solicitors read the register of title: what the land is, who owns it and what burdens it. Every entry needs an answer before exchange.

≈ 10 min read 8-question test

In this chapter

  • How to read the three registers and the title plan
  • Which entries stay with the land, and which the seller clears
  • What the register cannot show, and how the Contract closes the title

3.1The register of title in one paragraph

HM Land Registry keeps a register for each title to land. It says what the land is, who owns it and what burdens it. A buyer's solicitors read it in official copies, issued by the registry. They come with the title plan, the registry's map of the land.

An official copy shows the register as it stood on one day. Fellgate's copies were dated 6 March 2026, and exchange came more than ten weeks later. Denby Holt, Holmfield's solicitors, sent them in the contract pack, the bundle that opens the legal work.

Key point

The register can change on any working day, but your copy cannot. Write the date of the official copies at the head of your title table, because one clause of the Contract counts from it.

Also in this chapter

  1. Register A: what the land is
  2. Register B: who owns it
  3. Register C: what burdens it
  4. Full title guarantee, and what it leaves out
  5. What the register cannot show
  6. Closing the title at exchange
  7. Your job

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