This year marks the centenary of the Law of Property Act 1925 (“LPA 1925”).

There were often disputes regarding ownership and interests in land resulting in spiralling costs and significant delays to transactions.

Reform was needed to establish clear ownership and boost efficiency and to make ownership more accessible to the general public.

The LPA 1925 was therefore introduced and established the Land Registry, a centralised system for recording and maintaining a reliable public record of property ownership and estates. The LPA 1925 also reduced the number of legal estates to just two – freehold and leasehold.

The new law required that only the proprietor could transfer a legal estate and that every transfer needed to be documented.  This brought greater transparency in conveyancing.

Land registration also meant that it became far easier for parties to establish and prove ownership, especially as unregistered title deeds were often lost or missing. It also enabled third parties to search the register to ascertain ownership of land and rights pertaining to it.

As with any change, especially one as radical as this, there were objectors; and several conveyancers left the profession.  However, it has proved its worth and most land is now registered at HM Land Registry. The land which remains unregistered will be registered on any change of ownership or mortgage or can be registered voluntarily by the proprietor, as is often the case.

The Land Registry tries to move with the changing conveyancing landscape and digital market, for example, most applications are now dealt with electronically via their portal rather than by post.

However, the legal landscape continues to evolve. Documents are increasingly being executed in digital format rather than wet signature with a witness, not addressed by the LPA 1925, and the Act also does not take into consideration the move towards commonhold.  As such, reform is again due.