Understanding Leasehold title plans

In October 2014 the Land Registry changed its policy on how it creates Leasehold Plans.

Before the 20^th October the Land Registry looked to replicate the intricate details from the large leasehold plans showing the precise layout of property at a large scale.

The problem with this was that this was often potentially misleading when considering the smaller scale Ordnance Survey maps used by the Registry.  

A review of this practice revealed a variance in approach and for this reason a change in policy was needed to make sure that the focus on the mapping of leasehold floor levels was put back on the lease plan.

The new policy still requires the Registry to show the extent of the land in a lease but when it comes to dealing with larger developments this is more likely to be recorded on the landlord’s title with the tenant’s title plan showing only the outline of the building as shown on the Ordnance Survey Plan

By adopting this new approach the Registry hope it will be easier to understand the position of all the leases granted out of a registered title in relation to each other on one title plan.

Completion of a leasehold floor lever registration, according to the Registry, without any limitation in the extent of other rights, interests demised, guarantees the title granted to the tenant notwithstanding how the red edging on the title plan is drawn.

However these changes in policy will no impact on the results issued on searches of the index map, 0S2 applications and a Map Search.

In practice we will be seeing a change in the note attached to the tenant’s title plan.  This is now likely to record that the land will lie within the area edged red but which is more particularly described in the lease or leases.

None of these changes impact on the need to submit a Registry compliant plan when registering a title for the first time - that is making sure the following requirements are met:

• a site plan showing detail in relation to the Ordnance Survey map

• plans of each floor level

• a recognised scale for both the site plan and the floor level plans

• a North point

• clear edging showing the land demised by the lease. The location plan and the      detailed floor level plan can be separate plans.