Closed call for evidence

HM Land Registry fees and charging structure

Published 8 March 2024

Applies to England and Wales

Scope of the call for evidence

Topic of this call for evidence

HM Land Registry is consulting on the future fees and charging structure of the organisation. 

Scope of this call for evidence

This call for evidence seeks views on how HM Land Registry might increase access to land and property data for greater land transparency and update its fees and charging structure to make it simpler for customers and generate operating efficiencies. It seeks specific views on supporting the land and property information agenda and encouraging innovation through better/open access to HM Land Registry data, modernising and simplifying its fee structure and ensuring fees are fair and reasonable across its customer base.

Geographical scope

The resulting changes would apply to HM Land Registry fees in England and Wales, as land registration is a reserved matter in Wales. Land registration is a devolved power in other UK nations. 

Impact assessment 

This call for evidence does not propose any policy solutions. We will consult further on any proposals for change.

Basic information 

Body/bodies responsible for the call for evidence: 

This call for evidence is published by HM Land Registry. 

Duration

This call for evidence will last for 4 weeks from 8 March 2024 and closes on 5 April 2024.

Enquiries

For any enquiries about the call for evidence please contact:  feesandchargingstructure@landregistry.gov.uk

How to respond

Responses to the consultation can be submitted here:

We strongly encourage responses via the online survey. Using the online survey greatly assists our analysis of the responses, enabling more efficient and effective consideration of the information provided.

However, if it is not possible for you to use the online survey, please contact us to discuss alternative formats using the email address: feesandchargingstructure@landregistry.gov.uk or by writing to:

Strategic Finance Team
HM Land Registry
7th Floor
Trafalgar House
1 Bedford Park
Croydon
CR0 2AQ

Foreword

HM Land Registry is launching this call for evidence to gather your views on how we might restructure our fees and charging framework in order to improve our services to customers and increase transparency of land and property data. We are hoping to obtain views from a wide audience, not just our direct customers, but anyone who interacts with us and uses out information, directly or indirectly, now and in the future.

Our fees and charging structure has not significantly changed since its introduction 160 years ago, and as a result is no longer properly aligned to the way in which the world and the property market works. It is unnecessarily complex, hard to understand for both professional customers and others, and does not work in support of our wider objectives. Our sense it that this is a view which is fairly widely shared across the sector.

In making these changes and simplifying the framework, we want to support the delivery of our Strategy 2022+ which sets out our vision for a world-leading property market as part of a thriving economy and a sustainable future. Traditionally HM Land Registry has concentrated on transactional services. While those will remain vital, the strategy enables us to switch expertise and capacity so that we can improve land transparency and ensure that our information can be the cornerstone of a data-driven and sustainable economy. We want to become an enabler and influencer who is pivotal to realising the potential of the property market across the country, levelling up access to property data, making property transactions as near frictionless as possible, and growing the economy sustainably.

Thank you for taking the time to read and engage with this call for evidence. We look forward to hearing your views.

Simon Hayes
Chief Executive and Chief Land Registrar, HM Land Registry

Executive summary 

HM Land Registry is a non-ministerial department, responsible for protecting the right to property and providing services and data that underpin an efficient and informed property market. By keeping the definitive and guaranteed record of property ownership in England and Wales, we allow property to be transacted securely and with confidence. 

Since 1 June 2023 HM Land Registry has been a partner body of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

HM Land Registry’s objective is to provide a digital, efficient and secure service to the property market and to maximise the potential of the data it holds. We continue to explore ways in which we can provide greater transparency and easier online access to our ownership information and to support the wider government aims to improve the home buying and selling process, taking account of fraud risks and data ethics.

HM Land Registry charge a fee for some of the services that we provide. The fees for our statutory services are set out in secondary legislation (Fees Order) and those for our datasets and data services are set in consultation with HM Treasury and in line with Managing Public Money guidance.

Customers pay for obtaining information on property ownership and other elements affecting land use, such as planning conditions and listed building status, often ahead of a land or property purchase.

A land or property transaction usually needs to be recorded by HM Land Registry and a fee to update the register is paid dependent on the type of transaction (change of ownership, mortgages and other rights), its value and how it is submitted (online or through the post).

Our current fees and charging structure is complex and hasn’t been significantly revised since its introduction. This often leads to incorrect fee payments. In 2023 HM Land Registry issued around 141,000 written and telephone requisitions (requests for more information or clarification) relating to fees, which caused applications to be delayed.

We are therefore seeking views on how we might increase access to land and property data for greater land transparency and may restructure our fees to make it simpler for customers and generate operating efficiencies whilst ensuring our costs are met and that we continue to invest in providing the modern, efficient services that customers want.

To assist in responding to this call for evidence we have provided a glossary of terms referred to in this document. The questions we are asking in this call for evidence are summarised below. Details on how to respond to these questions are set out above. We recommend that you respond online using the survey.

Theme 1 – Supporting the land and property information agenda and encouraging innovation through better/open access to HM Land Registry data

Question 1: How do you or your organisation use HM Land Registry data? How important is HM Land Registry data to you or your organisation? How do we compare with the five organisations that you most often obtain land and property data from?

Question 2: What other data would you find useful if it was available (including data held elsewhere or not currently collected) and what would you use it for? How important is it to you?

Question 3: What concerns, risks or opportunities do you see in making our land and property data more open/available? 

Question 4: Is paying for data a barrier?

Question 5: Are there any other barriers or challenges in obtaining and using HM Land Registry data? Please provide examples.

Theme 2 – Modernising and simplifying our fee structure

Question 6: To what extent would you agree that it easy to calculate the exact fees and charges for HM Land Registry’s services?

Question 7: Does the structure of HM Land Registry’s fees and charges create barriers and challenges? Please provide examples.

Question 8: If you were to create a new fee structure what would it look like? For example, this could be introducing a single fee for a property transaction event as opposed to charging for individual services, or standard flat fees, or scaled fees.

Question 9: How easy or difficult is it to make payments for HM Land Registry services? (Please think about making payment and payment channels but not calculating the fee.) How does HM Land Registry compare with other organisations?

Question 10: Do you foresee any negative impacts if we stopped taking cheques and postal orders as a payment method? What would help mitigate these impacts?

Theme 3 – Ensuring our fees are fair and reasonable across our customer base

Question 11: Should HM Land Registry set fees differently for specific customer groups or services? If yes, which group/services do you think should pay more? For example, individuals, second homeowners, property development industry, local authorities, conveyancers, PropTech or fast tracking, account management support, pre-lodgement checking, and so on.

Question 12: Our fee structure is complex. Do you or your organisation currently utilise (or know of) other fees and charging models (for example subscription-based) that are used by other organisations and you think might work for HM Land Registry? Please provide details of the fees and charging models including the name of the organisations and their advantages and disadvantages.

Question 13: Should customers who provide complete and accurate application data, requiring less HM Land Registry staff checking time, be charged lower fees for making applications? Would lower fees incentivise you or your organisation to sign up to a process enabling this?

Question 14: Are there any additional services or commercial propositions that HM Land Registry might develop to support you and/or more widely, improvements in the property market?

Introduction 

What HM Land Registry does

HM Land Registry is a non-ministerial department and since 1 June 2023 has been a partner body of DLUHC. We protect land ownership and provide services and data that underpin an efficient and informed property market.

Land is the physical foundation of our lives. It provides our food, our ecosystem, a place to live, work and play and all the infrastructure in between. Keeping a property owner’s rights secure is a cornerstone of a democratic society. A functioning property market underpins a successful and sustainable economy. The value of land in England and Wales is estimated at over £8 trillion which is more than half the wealth of the nation. With over £260 billion worth of property transacted each year, the UK property market is one of the largest in the world.

HM Land Registry has served as the critical institution protecting the right to property and enabling the market to operate for more than 160 years. By keeping the definitive and guaranteed record of property ownership in England and Wales, we allow property to be transacted securely and with confidence.

The Land Registration Act 2002 places a legal liability on HM Land Registry to indemnify for losses resulting from errors or omissions in the register of title. This includes errors resulting from frauds perpetrated by third parties.

There are more than 26 million land and property titles, covering around 88% of the land area of England and Wales. Knowing who owns or occupies a piece of land or a building, what is there and what can or cannot be done with it, informs important decisions every day. Access to information about land enables individuals, businesses and the Government to plan for a future that meets the challenges of today, such as climate change, housing need and a thriving economy.

In August 2022, we published our Strategy 2022+,‘Enabling a world-leading property market’. It outlines our ambition to become an enabler and influencer that is pivotal to realising the potential of the property market, through making property transactions as near frictionless as possible, providing better access to property data and supporting sustainable economic growth in the UK. There are 5 pillars to achieving our strategy as follows:

1 Providing secure and efficient land registration

We will:

• improve our speed of service as a priority
• introduce automation and digital services that integrate with conveyancing, to create a truly outstanding customer service
• maintain trust and confidence by investing in expertise and professionalism
• work with the property sector to increase resilience to fraud and cyber threat
• explore the benefits of mapping unregistered land to increase transparency

2 Enabling property to be bought and sold digitally

We will:

• work with the property sector to drive the transformation to an entirely digital process for buying and selling property
• develop our services to be fully digital and easily connected to other digital components of the property market in England and Wales
• use our practice requirements to promote a secure and inclusive digital system of conveyancing, with common data and connectivity standards

3 Providing near real-time property information

We will:

• support conveyancers with a plan to automate our information services, working towards a fully digital land register integrated within a fully digital conveyancing system
• prioritise the digitisation of the most useful register information
• explore providing greater transparency and online access to property information
• complete the new instant access local land charges register

4 Providing accessible digital register data

We will:

• make our data more findable, accessible, interoperable with other data and reusable to increase its wider value
• through our Geovation Accelerator Programme, sponsor start-up businesses looking to use our data to innovate new products and services
• continue to help deliver the objectives of the National Geospatial Strategy

5 Leading research and accelerating change with property market partners

We will:

• work in partnership with others in the sector to build a shared vision for the property market, research collaboratively and co-design changes to the system
• build on the success of our Digital Street research community, to continue to explore the potential benefit of emerging technologies

What information and data we hold

Registers

We hold four registers of information relating to land and property that, combined, represent one of the largest transactional geospatial property databases in Europe, including all secured loans and other property rights in England and Wales. The registers are as follows:

Our Registers of Title provide information relating to ownership of registered land, along with details of registered legal matters affecting it. It covers approximately 88% of the land area in England and Wales, split among more than 26 million registered entries. The registered land is worth over £8 trillion and has over £1.5 trillion worth of lending secured against it. Customers pay a fee to access full data on individual titles and to update the register.

Our Land Charges Register, provides information about unregistered land such as mortgages and can reveal whether an unregistered property has restrictions on its use. There are over 5.7 million entries in this register. The service also includes the bankruptcy index for England and Wales. Customers pay a fee to access the data held and to update the register.

Our Agricultural Credits Register provides details of charges over farm assets, such as livestock or equipment. The register contains over 50,000 entries. Customers pay a fee to access the data held and to record a charge.

Our Local Land Charges (LLC) Register provides information from local authorities about the use and enjoyment of properties. This includes listed building status, tree preservation orders, and other environmental protections amongst others. The Local Land Charges register currently contains over 4.3 million charges in the register from the 85 migrated local authorities. A further 120+ are in the process of migration and once the programme is completed approximately 26 million charges from 331 local authorities will be accessible instantly. Customers pay a fee to access the full data held.

Datasets

Using information held within our registers, we currently make thirteen datasets publicly available for others to use. The market for our data is diverse. Customers of HM Land Registry’s datasets are organisations who pull together vast amounts of information into one place and offer services to a wide range of end-users, such as Real Estate Lawyers, Estate Agents, Local Government, Developers and Property Professionals, Title Insurers and Conveyancers. The datasets form a significant part of the many unified, integrated platforms which provide a ‘one-stop-shop’ of packaged workflow management solutions, aimed mainly at both reducing administration and the associated costs of the lending and conveyancing process. A full list of the data we make available and the pricing can be found at our land and property data website. Some examples of this data are described below:

Geospatial datasets show the shape and position of registered titles on a geographical map. They are extensively used in academic research, by property professionals to enhance their operations, by land and property consultants to contextualise complex land areas for informed decision-making and by PropTech for a range of innovative purposes. HM Land Registry’s data linked to a wide range of other data sources can create ‘use cases’ which can reduce early-stage development costs significantly. Additionally, government agencies use this data for critical tasks, such as the delivery of planning, housing, and regeneration plans, the management of public assets, housing and social policy, maintenance of public health and safety and the identification of levelling-up opportunities.

Company ownership data on UK and non-UK company land ownership enables better analysis of patterns of ownership and the role of UK and overseas companies in the housing market and economy overall. It is used to combat fraud and property crime, understand land use, assess land for potential development and understand industry demographics.

Our data on registered leases and restrictive covenants provide greater transparency on how land and property can be used, managed or developed. It is used to speed up the conveyancing process by helping identify potential issues at an earlier stage and minimise risk to lenders, investors, prospective buyers and sellers.

Our historic and recent property sale prices data is the preferred measure used by the Bank of England for house price inflation; supports members of the public in their property buying and selling decisions; provides information to property valuation professionals including surveyors, lenders and estate agents, analysts looking at location specific market trends and housing affordability, and key decision makers in housing, regeneration and community programmes making.

The data recorded in the first land register, the 1862 Act dataset that HM Land Registry created is used by historians and genealogists to understand local areas, people and their ancestors and has even helped decipher and date historical documents.

Many of our datasets are available free of charge under an Open Government Licence but some are charged for on an annual basis.

DLUHC has launched a consultation on building a new dataset comprising data about contractual controls over land. This consultation, Contractual controls on land: consultation, is open until 20 March 2024.

Data services

Each service is tailored according to customer need and focussed on providing data in an accessible format for commercial use. A charge is made for each item of data supplied or per month for the self-serve options. Some examples of the data services are described below:

Verification – customers use HM Land Registry data to verify their own data records. Common uses of this service include determining an individual’s propensity to pay outstanding debts; confirming an individual’s address prior to providing credit or any services; highlighting potential fraudulent claims or confirming a charge has been registered.

High volume requests – volume orders for Information Services (both copies of the register and spatial data) provided in a more accessible format for customers such as large housing portfolio managers.

Integrated data – through virtual private networks, electronic notifications relating to mortgage information are passed between signed up customers and HM Land Registry which aims to deliver efficiencies.

How our services are funded

HM Land Registry has been funded through the Parliamentary Estimates process since the revocation of trading fund status on 1 April 2020. HM Land Registry collects all fees and charges at the point of application and surrenders them to HM Treasury upon completion of the work. We aim to be cost-neutral to the UK taxpayer.

In the 2021 Autumn Spending Review, HM Land Registry received a three-year settlement for both Resource Departmental Expenditure Limits (RDEL) and Capital Departmental Expenditure Limits (CDEL). In 2022-23 HM Land Registry spent £423m. The vast majority of spend (c.75%) is on our people, most of whom are directly processing casework. The remainder is spent on maintenance and development of our IT and physical infrastructure and our indemnity protection.

Reforming our fee structure

We are also committed to a longer-term overhaul of our fees, which is the focus of this consultation and will generate an invaluable evidence base as we finalise our proposals. This restructure is required to unlock the potential that our data has for the economy and greater land transparency; to simplify the structure for our customers; and to ensure that HM Land Registry’s services are evolving in line with the requirements of all our stakeholders. Reform of our fees would support wider government aims to improve the home buying and selling process.

Call for evidence

Theme 1 – Supporting the land and property information agenda and encouraging innovation through better/open access to HM Land Registry data

Our data is a national asset. As well as increasing transparency, we know that making more of our data more easily available has the potential to bring much wider benefits. It is why providing accessible digital register data is a key part of our current Strategy 2022+.

An initial valuation of four of our thirteen published datasets estimated that they add around £300 million to the economy each year. We have already seen direct wider benefits with the success of the Geovation Accelerator programme; we support start-ups both financially and by providing them with access to our geospatial data. Our Geovation start-ups have developed and continue to develop products and services that benefit businesses, people and our planet. For further information please see the “Leading research and accelerating change with property market partners” section of HM Land Registry’s Annual Report and Accounts.

We recognise that our data has the potential to be combined with other datasets to generate insight that helps the Government and others tackle complex social, environmental and economic challenges. We appreciate that there is a balance to be struck between unlocking the benefits that come from making our data more accessible and available, and managing risks that might arise because of this.

Releasing the value of the data we hold is in line with our strategic aims, but we are aware that making data more open and available could bring increased fraud and data ethics/quality risks such as privacy and confidentiality breaches and that the data might be misinterpreted.

We also acknowledge that, much of the information we hold, accumulated over 160 years is not yet digitised and therefore not readily accessible. This includes significant parts of the Registers of Title information.

Currently we charge for data based on a mix of the strategic intent (to drive economic growth), the sensitivity of the data (could charging be a deliberate ‘barrier to entry’ for example) and how the data will be used (e.g., charging for anyone making commercial gain from the data). We use the ‘openness’ of our data as a guiding principle, it was always our strategic intention to make our data publications as ‘open’ as possible. There are various definitions of open data, but all of them include four basic features: (1) the data must be publicly available for anyone to use (2) it must be licensed in a way that allows for its reuse (3) it should be relatively easy to use and (4) there is general agreement that open data should be available free of charge or at minimal cost.

The pricing strategy for our datasets and data services is predicated on a value-based model whilst ensuring we cover all costs. There are a number of different factors taken into account when setting the price. These include our understanding of customer segments, their ability and willingness to pay, market conditions, and anticipated demand.

We want to explore how we maximise making information more freely available and charge where appropriate to do so - including as whole datasets - while also protecting the security and integrity of our registers, and what model(s) we may use to charge for the data where relevant.

Question 1: How do you or your organisation use HM Land Registry data? How important is HM Land Registry data to you or your organisation? How do we compare with the five organisations that you most often obtain land and property data from?

Question 2: What other data would you find useful if it was available (including data held elsewhere or not currently collected) and what would you use it for? How important is it to you?

Question 3: What concerns, risks or opportunities do you see in making our land and property data more open/available? 

Question 4: Is paying for data a barrier?  

Question 5: Are there any other barriers or challenges in obtaining and using HM Land Registry data? Please provide examples.

Theme 2 – Modernising and simplifying our fee structure  

Providing secure and efficient land registration is key to ensuring our data is up to date and accurate when making it more easily available.

HM Land Registry charge a fee for the services we provide. The fees for our statutory services are set out in secondary legislation (Fees Order) and those for our datasets and data services are set in consultation with HM Treasury and in line with Managing Public Money guidance. Some services are free such as recording a change of name or to remove a mortgage.

Customers pay for obtaining information on property ownership and other elements affecting land use, such as planning conditions and listed building status, often ahead of a land or property purchase.

A land or property transaction usually needs to be recorded by HM Land Registry and a fee to update the register is paid dependent on the type of transaction (change of ownership, mortgages and other rights), its value and how it is submitted (online or through the post).

The current HM Land Registry fee structure is complex even for professional customers to understand and apply, therefore we are particularly aware that for members of the public using our services it can be especially challenging to calculate the fee they should pay correctly. Working on the assumption that HM Land Registry will continue to recover the cost of delivering our service, a fee restructure offers the opportunity to simplify and improve operating efficiencies for our customers and HM Land Registry as an organisation.

The complexity in part derives from the structure essentially not having changed significantly since our inception in 1862 with:

• scale fees, which are based on the value of the property. These are presented in fee bands; the higher the value of the property, the higher the fee. These fees apply to applications for registration of unregistered land and for the registration of transfers, leases and mortgages of property. Scale fees currently provide c.75% of land registration fee income
• fixed fees, which apply to other types of application, for example, registration of notices or restrictions against a registered title, requesting searches or requesting copies of the register

Scale fees are divided into the following two categories:

Scale 1 fees. These are higher fees based on the value of the land or the transaction (for example, purchase price). They apply to applications to register unregistered land, transfers or leases in a property purchase or leases of premises at a market rent.

Scale 1 fees
Value or amount	Apply by post and/or apply using   the portal or Business Gateway, for registration of all leases and transfers   or surrenders which affect part of a registered title		Apply using the portal or Business   Gateway, for transfers or surrenders which affect the whole of a registered   title
0 to £80,000	£45	£20
£80,001 to £100,000	£95	£40
£100,001 to £200,000	£230	£100
£200,001 to £500,000	£330	£150
£500,001 to £1,000,000	£655	£295
£1,000,001 and over	£1,105	£500

Scale 2 fees. These are lower fees based on the value of the land (or the value of the share in the land) or, for mortgages, the amount secured by the mortgage. They apply to transfers of property which are not sales, for example, gifts, transfers to beneficiaries under a will or transfer on divorce or the ending of a civil partnership. Scale 2 fees also apply to the registration of mortgages.

Scale 2 fees
Value or amount	Apply by post and/or apply using   the portal or Business Gateway for registration of transfers of part, and all   other Scale 2 applications that do not affect the whole of a registered title	Apply using the portal or Business   Gateway, for transfers of whole, charges of whole, transfers of charges and   other applications of whole of registered titles
0 to £100,000	£45	£20
£100,001 to £200,000	£70	£30
£200,001 to £500,000	£100	£45
£500,001 to £1,000,000	£145	£65
£1,000,001 and over	£305	£140

To determine the fee to be paid a customer must consider:

• What the nature of the transaction is. Does a scale fee, fixed fee or exemption apply to this type of transaction?
• If it is a fixed fee application, does an abatement apply (e.g., if the application accompanies an application to which a scale fee applies)?
• How the application is submitted (e.g., electronically or by post)
• Which of the scale fees to apply
• If Scale 1, what the value of the land is, or the transaction (for example the purchase price) and which fee band it falls within
• If Scale 2 and the application is to register a mortgage, what the amount secured by the mortgage is and which fee band it falls within. Does an abatement of fee apply (e.g., where it accompanies an application to register a transfer or lease)?
• If Scale 2 and the whole of the property is being transferred, what the value of the land is (this may not be evident from the transfer document) and which fee band it falls within
• If Scale 2 and it is only a share in the property that is being transferred, what the value of the share is (this may not be evident from the transfer document) and which fee band it falls within
• If in either of the above two situations, a mortgage is secured on the property and not repaid on completion of the transfer, the amount outstanding must be determined and subtracted from the full value of the property to determine what value to use to determine the fee band that the transaction falls within (see example below).

Example

John Smith transfers a property as a gift to himself and Sharon Jones in equal shares. The property is worth £200,000 and is subject to a mortgage to the Cornshire Building Society where £100,000 remains outstanding and is not repaid on completion of the transfer. First, determine the value of the share, by subtracting the amount outstanding on the mortgage (£100,000) from the full value of the property, £200,000. Then divide the result (£100,000) in half to reflect the equal shares - £50,000. The fee is assessed on this figure, £50,000, and is payable under Scale 2.

Many fees need to be calculated from a combination of more than one of these scenarios and the complexity can create confusion among customers and the potential for incorrect fees to be paid. In 2023 HM Land Registry issued around 141,000 written and telephone requisitions (requests for more information or clarification) relating to fees, which caused applications to be delayed.

We are investing in our digital channels to enable us to exercise a level of control over the quality of customer application data we choose to receive. Last year we added fee calculation functionality within our Digital Registration Service (DRS), and we are starting to see the impact of this with a reduction in fee errors.

The payment methods we accept are set out in our Fee Order and include direct debit, credit or debit card, cheque or postal order, or cash. Business customers must set up a direct debit to be able to submit applications electronically via a customer portal; over 95% of fees are paid using this method. Customers without a direct debit arrangement cannot submit applications electronically via the customer portal and must use an alternative payment method. Credit and debit card payments are made online for the provision of official copies of the register and title plan, or at the request of HM Land Registry.

A simplified fee structure would reduce costs and improve operating efficiencies for our customers and HM Land Registry as an organisation. It might mean:

• a simple, one-off cost for engaging with HM Land Registry during a particular transaction rather than through several individual payments at different stages of the process - for example rather than paying separately for official copies and searches and the registration of a property sale, one fee is paid which entitles you access to all relevant information held and for the property sale to be registered once the transaction goes through
• reducing the number of specific types of applications
• combining scale fees; or
• offering a subscription-based model for example charging an annual amount to provide access to certain services

We are interested to find out how we could simplify our fee structure to make it easier for customers, whether professionals or members of the public, to get the fee correct first time and create efficiencies for HM Land Registry and our customers. 

Question 6: To what extent would you agree that it easy to calculate the exact fees and charges for HM Land Registry services?

Question 7: Does the structure of HM Land Registry fees and charges create barriers and challenges? Please provide examples.

Question 8: If you were to create a new fee structure what would it look like? For example, this could be introducing a single fee for a property transaction event as opposed to charging for individual services, or standard flat fees, or scaled fees.

Question 9: How easy or difficult is it to make payments for HM Land Registry services? (Please think about making payment and payment channels but not calculating the fee.) How does HM Land Registry compare with other organisations?

Question 10: Do you foresee any negative impacts if we stopped taking cheques and postal orders as a payment method? what would help mitigate these impacts?

Theme 3 – Ensuring our fees are fair and reasonable across our customer base  

Our fees are based on the services being provided and do not always take account of the complexity or additional support provided by HM Land Registry. An example of this is the registration of large-scale applications which are usually submitted by commercial customers and typically comprise more than 200 registered titles or more than 50 unregistered properties. We have a dedicated team who support customers with submission and manage the registration at no additional cost.

The table shows the percentage of revenue generated by the different services (please refer to the glossary provided for definitions of these services).

Services	Percentage of total income
Register change services	74.9%
Guaranteed queries
Official copies	14.3%
Official searches	2.2%
Searches of the index map	0.3%
Non-guaranteed queries
Views of the register	5.3%
MapSearch	Free
Property Summary	Free
Land Charges and Agricultural Credits	1.7%
Local Land Charges	0.2%
Data services	1.1%

Our fees do not currently take account of different customer groups or their willingness to pay for a premium or different kind of service or commercial proposition.

Some registrations are free such as registering a change of name or to remove a mortgage once it has been paid off. These applications help to maintain the integrity of the register and keep it up to date. We want to make sure that customers continue to lodge these changes. The cost of processing these applications is borne by fee paying customers.

The table below sets out HM Land Registry’s main customers by service (please refer to the glossary provided for definitions of these services).

Services	Main customers
Register change services	Conveyancers (on behalf of clients)
Guaranteed queries
Official copies	Intermediates/conveyancers (on behalf of clients)
Official searches	Conveyancers (on behalf of clients)
Searches of the Index map	Conveyancers (on behalf of clients)
Non-guaranteed queries
Views of the register	Non-business users such as the general public
MapSearch	Non-business users such as the general public
Property Summary	Non-business users such as the general public
Land Charges	Banks/local authorities/solicitors
Agricultural Credits	Banks

Redistributing the fee burden across our customer bases might include:

• Charging some customers a higher fee than others - customer segmentation could include a more managed service approach for our largest customers, including those involved in large scale developments and big infrastructure projects for which we could charge a premium or those that use our data for commercial gain.
• A tiered system, for example doubling fees for expensive transactions but reducing fees for under £500k.
• Exempting some customers, for example public sector and not-for-profit organisations from some fees.

We are interested to get your views on how we could redistribute the burden of fees but maintain a fair and reasonable fee structure for all our customers.

Question 11: Should HM Land Registry set fees differently for specific customer groups or services? If yes, which group/services do you think should pay more. For example, individuals, second homeowners, property development industry, local authorities, conveyancers, PropTech or fast tracking, account management support, pre-lodgement checking, and so on.

Question 12: Our fee structure is complex. Do you/your organisation currently utilise (or know of) other fees and charging models (for example subscription-based) that are used by other organisations and you think might work for HM Land Registry? Please provide details of the fees and charging models including the name of the organisation(s) and their advantages and disadvantages.

Question 13: Should customers who provide complete and accurate application data, requiring less HM Land Registry staff checking time, be charged lower fees for making applications? Would lower fees incentivise you or your organisation to sign up to a process enabling this?

Question 14: Are there any additional services or commercial propositions that HM Land Registry might develop to support you and/or more widely, improvements in the property market?

About you

Are you responding to this call for evidence as an individual or on behalf of an organisation?

Which sector do you work within?

Which part of the United Kingdom do you or your organisation operate in?

• North East
• North West
• Yorkshire and the Humber
• East Midlands
• West Midlands
• East Anglia
• South West
• South East
• London
• Wales
• Scotland
• Northern Ireland
• UK-wide
• Overseas

Glossary 

Agricultural Credits Register	A register that provides details of changes over farm assets, such as livestock or equipment.
Business Gateway	The Business Gateway Application Programming Interface allows customers to seamlessly access our services from within their case management systems and automate repetitive processes.
Capital Departmental Expenditure Limits (CDEL)	Investment in internally generated software, IT equipment and estates.
Data Services	Four suites of services, each tailored according to the customer need, and in most cases, the outputs are created and supplied manually by the Data Services Team.
Datasets	Register or spatial information published monthly under a variety of licensing terms depending on the sensitivity of the data.
Digital Registration Service	A HM Land Registry portal service allowing applications to be submitted digitally where some data is automatically checked before it is lodged.
Digital Street	An existing research and development approach, collaborating with a strong community of innovation leaders, entrepreneurs and creative disruptors to push the boundaries of property market expectations.
First registration	The requirement to register unregistered freehold and leasehold estates in land.
Fixed Fee Application	Transactions protecting an interest in land and property other than a change of ownership that attract a fixed fee regardless of value.
Geospatial	Data and information associated with a particular location or place.
Geovation	The practice of using location data and intelligence to help identify opportunities and create solutions.
Geovation Accelerator Programme	A scheme supported by HM Land Registry and Ordnance Survey providing grant funding, access to data, geospatial expertise and property insight to location-data and PropTech start-ups.
Guaranteed queries	Services that provide information and results which come with a guarantee. This includes official copies, official searches, and searches of the index map.
Information Services	Pre-completion applications that provide information to satisfy market interest and to support property transactions. This includes guaranteed queries, non-guaranteed queries, land charges and agricultural credits.
Land Charges	Interests in unregistered land that are capable of being protected by entry in the Land Charges Register.
Land Charges Register	A register that contains the following information: a register of land charges, a register of pending actions and pending actions in bankruptcy, a register of writs and orders effecting land and writs and orders in bankruptcy, a register of deeds of arrangement affecting land and a register of annuities.
Land Register	Records the ownership of land and property in England and Wales.
Land Transparency Agenda	Current Government interest in increasing the transparency of land ownership and control in the United Kingdom.
Local Land Charges (LLC) Register	A statutory register that contains local authority information about the use and enjoyment of properties. It includes things such as listed building status, tree preservation orders and other environmental protections.
MapSearch	A free-to-use online mapping tool within the HM Land Registry portal allowing customers to establish quickly whether land and property in England or Wales is registered.
National Geospatial Strategy	Promotes and safeguards the use of location data to provide an evidenced view of the market value of location data, set clear guidelines on data access, privacy, ethics and security, and promote better use of location data. Owned by the Geospatial Commission.
Non-guaranteed queries	Services that provide information and results which do not come with a guarantee. This includes views of the register, map search and property summary.
Official copy	Copies of deeds and documents filed with us, including title registers and title plans, which are guaranteed as being accurate and are admissible as evidence as if they were the original.
Official search	Allows people such as homebuyers or mortgage lenders to have their purchase, lease or charge prioritised for completion over applications lodged subsequently.
Open Government Licence	A set of terms and conditions that facilitates the use and re-use of a wide range of public sector information free of charge.
Parliamentary Estimates Process	The process of outlining Government spending for the following fiscal year presented by the cabinet to Parliament.
PropTech	The use of technology to help individuals and companies research, buy, sell and manage real estate.
Property Summary	A free-to-use service which allows users to view a property’s address, a property’s description, and the tenure type.
Register change services	Any application to either update an existing property title (Register update) or one that leads to the creation of a completely new register such as a transfer of part of an existing title, a new lease or registration of land for the first time.
Register update	Any application to change the register of the whole of an existing property title, including new mortgages, name changes, transfers and discharges.
Requisition/request for information	A situation wherein HM Land Registry has to make enquiries to the applicant on an application because information or evidence is missing or incorrect and so cannot be processed.
Resource Departmental Expenditure Limits (RDEL)	Net limit comprising of day-to-day running costs of a government department.
Search of the Index Map	A service which allows users to view whether the land searched is registered, the title numbers that affect and the type of registration that has been disclosed.
Scale fee application	Land and property transactions where the fee is based on the value of the property. These are presented in fee bands, the higher the value of the property, the higher the fee.
Scale 1 Fee	Type of scale fee application. Higher fee based on the value of the land or the transaction. They apply to applications to register unregistered land, transfers or leases in a property purchase or leases of premises at a market rent.
Scale 2 Fee	Type of scale fee application. Lower fee based on the value of the land (or share in the land) or, for mortgages, the amount secured by the mortgage. They apply to transfers of property which are not sales, for example, gifts, transfers to beneficiaries under a will or transfer on divorce or the ending of a civil partnership.
Search for land and property information	A free-to-use service allowing customers to download copies of the property summary for properties in England and Wales.
Views of the Register	A service allowing customers to download copies of the title register and title plan for properties in England and Wales for a fee.

About this call for evidence 

This call for evidence document and call for evidence process have been planned to adhere to the call for evidence principles issued by the Cabinet Office. 

Representative groups are asked to give a summary of the people and organisations they represent, and where relevant who else they have consulted in reaching their conclusions when they respond. 

Information provided in response to this call for evidence may be published or disclosed in accordance with the access to information regimes (the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004) and in accordance with UK data protection legislation.

If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please ensure you indicate this clearly, so that this can be considered in the event that an information request is received. Please explain why you regard the information you have provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the department. 

His Majesty’s Land Registry will at all times process your personal data in accordance with UK data protection legislation and in the majority of circumstances this will mean that your personal data will not be disclosed to third parties. A full privacy notice is included below. 

Your opinions are valuable to us. Thank you for taking the time to read this document and respond. Please note that individual responses will not be acknowledged unless specifically requested. 

Are you satisfied that this call for evidence has followed the call for evidence principles? If not or you have any other observations about how we can improve the process please contact us via the complaints procedure. 

Personal data

The purpose of this notice is to explain how we will process your personal data and your rights under UK data protection legislation. 

Note that this section only refers to personal data (your name, contact details and any other information that relates to you or another identified or identifiable individual personally) not the content otherwise of your response to the call for evidence. 

1. The identity of the data controller and contact details of our Data Protection Officer

DLUHC and HM Land Registry are the joint data controllers for this processing activity. The designated Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotection@landregistry.gov.uk or by writing to the following address:

Data Protection Officer
HM Land Registry
Trafalgar House
1 Bedford Park
Croydon
CR0 2AQ

    

2. Why we are collecting your personal data   

Your personal data is being collected as an essential part of the call for evidence process, so that we can contact you regarding your response and for statistical purposes. We may also use it to contact you about related matters. 

We will collect your IP address if you complete a call for evidence online. We will use this data to ensure that each person only completes a survey once. We will not use this data for any other purpose. 

Sensitive types of personal data 

Please do not share special category personal data or criminal offence data if we have not asked for this unless absolutely necessary for the purposes of your call for evidence response. ‘Special category personal data’ includes personal data that reveals information about: 

• race
• ethnic origin
• political opinions
• religious or philosophical beliefs
• trade union membership
• genetics
• biometrics
• health (including disability-related information)
• sex life
• sexual orientation

By ‘criminal offence data’, we mean information relating to a living individual’s criminal convictions or offences or related security measures. 

3. Our legal basis for processing your personal data 

The collection of your personal data is lawful under article 6(1)(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation as it is necessary for the performance by HM Land Registry of a task in the public interest/in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller. Section 8(d) of the Data Protection Act 2018 states that this will include processing of personal data that is necessary for the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown or a government department i.e., in this case a call for evidence. 

Where necessary for the purposes of this call for evidence, our lawful basis for the processing of any special category personal data or ‘criminal offence’ data (terms explained under ‘Sensitive Types of Data’) which you submit in response to this call for evidence is as follows.

The relevant lawful basis for the processing of special category personal data is Article 9(2)(g) UK GDPR (‘substantial public interest’), and Schedule 1 paragraph 6 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (‘statutory etc and government purposes’).

The relevant lawful basis in relation to personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences data is provided by Schedule 1 paragraph 6 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (‘statutory etc and government purposes’).

4. With whom we will be sharing your personal data 

We may share your data with other organisations which have a direct interest in the policy on which we are consulting, for example: Crown bodies, government departments or HM Land Registry partner organisations.

DLUHC and HM Land Registry may appoint a ‘data processor’, acting on behalf of the department and under our instruction, to help analyse the responses to this call for evidence. Where we do, we will ensure that the processing of your personal data remains in strict accordance with the requirements of the data protection legislation. 

5. For how long we will keep your personal data, or criteria used to determine the retention period

Your personal data will be held for at least 2 years from the closure of the call for evidence, unless we identify that its continued retention is unnecessary before that point. 

6. Your rights, including access, rectification, restriction, objection 

Where the data we are collecting is your personal data, you have the following rights: 

a. to request access to copies of your personal data

b. to ask us to erase your personal data

c. to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data

d. to ask to have your data corrected if it is inaccurate or incomplete 

e. to object to our use of your personal data in certain circumstances 

f. to lodge a complaint with the independent Information Commissioner (ICO) if you think we are not handling your data fairly or in accordance with the law. You can contact the ICO at https://ico.org.uk/, or telephone 0303 123 1113. 

Please contact us at the following address if you wish to exercise the rights listed above, except the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO: dataprotection@landregistry.gov.uk or Data Protection Officer, HM Land Registry, Trafalgar House, 1 Bedford Park, Croydon CR0 2AQ. 

7. Your personal data will not be sent overseas

8. Your personal data will not be subject to any automated decision making 

9. Your personal data will be stored in a secure government IT system

We use a third-party processor, Citizen Space, to collect call for evidence responses. which process your data in a secure UK-based server. Once collected your personal data will be transferred to our secure government IT system as soon as possible, where it will be stored for 2 years before it is permanently deleted.

Complete the survey

Responses to the consultation can be submitted here: