Guidance

Practice guide 7: entry of price paid or value stated data in the register

Updated 17 January 2022

Applies to England and Wales

Please note that HM Land Registry’s practice guides are aimed primarily at solicitors and other conveyancers. They often deal with complex matters and use legal terms.

1. Introduction

This guide contains information about HM Land Registry’s practice on entering price paid or value information in the register.

2. Why HM Land Registry enters the price paid or value in the register

HM Land Registry is under a statutory obligation under rule 8(2) of the Land Registration Rules 2003 to enter the price paid or a value, whenever practicable, in three situations.

• On first registration of a registered estate, that is, when a property is registered for the very first time.
• On the registration of a lease for more than 7 years.
• When there is a change of owner of an existing registered property, whether or not the existing owner also remains in the register.

There are some exceptions to this, for instance where the term of a registered lease is extended.

The terms of a confidentiality clause will not override the obligation on the registrar to enter the price paid in the register. The registrar will not enter a price paid if the registrar considers it misleading, such as when the value stated represents only a half share of the value of the property. Please see Absence of an entry for more information about this.

3. When HM Land Registry will enter the price paid or value

We will make an entry in the proprietorship register when it is clear a sum of money (other than rent under a lease) has been paid. The sum entered will be the actual amount of money the buyer has paid to the seller. This may not be the same as the market value of the property.

An entry will be made where the price includes other property as well as money.

Where the consideration or premium includes a VAT element, we will refer to this in the price paid entry.

We will enter the price paid or value stated where the applicant can be reasonably expected to have this information. We would expect the information to be readily available to the applicant where, for example:

• stamp duty land tax or land transaction tax has been paid
• the price is not stated in the transfer/lease but is contained in a separate document
• a probate valuation has been obtained

We will ask the applicant to provide the price paid or a value if we receive an application and this information is not provided but we would expect this to be available. We may cancel the application if we consider that the information is readily available and is not supplied. This is because of the statutory duty on the registrar to make an entry.

We will not requisition for the price paid, where it is referred to in a document not lodged with us, if the transfer or lease is dated before 1 May 2013, or is in a form expressly required in an agreement entered into before 1 May 2013.

We will enter the price paid even if it is given in a currency other than pounds sterling, but we do not convert the price.

4. If there is no payment made or the price cannot be calculated

In cases where no payment is made or the price cannot be calculated we will make a value stated entry. If the actual value is not known, an entry may be made on the basis of the information given to HM Land Registry for assessing the fees.

The entry may, therefore, contain reference to a value band in which the value of the property falls, such as:

“The value as at [date of application] was stated to be between £xxx and £yyy.”

Or a minimum or maximum value from the bottom or top bands, such as:

“The value as at [date of application] was stated to be over £xxx.”

We will, however, omit the entry if it would be misleading, for example, the value stated represents only a half share of the value of the property.

5. Discounts and incentives

Often sellers offer discounts and incentives to prospective buyers.

We consider that a discount is a cash sum deducted from the purchase price. A discount may also be referred to as an equity discount, a gifted deposit, a gifted equity or cashback. When a property transaction includes a discount, we will deduct the value of the discount from the gross price and enter the net (lower) price paid in the register. If we are unable to identify the net price, we will request this. For example, where a sale is stated to be for £300,000 and this includes a deposit of £30,000 paid by the seller, we would record the price paid as £270,000.

Where a consideration includes an incentive, our practice is to enter the gross price. We consider that an incentive is something like help with moving costs, the seller paying legal costs or stamp duty land tax or land transaction tax, providing carpeting or white goods, or upgraded kitchen and bathroom fittings because these don’t involve a sum being deducted from the sale price. We also consider assistance under a Homebuy/Help to Buy scheme (money loaned to a purchaser through the Homebuy or Help to Buy schemes) to be an incentive and not a discount as this has to be repaid at some point in the future. You must enter the price paid net of any discount (the actual sum that the buyer has paid to the seller) in the consideration panel or prescribed clause LR7 of a prescribed clauses lease respectively when preparing a transfer or prescribed clauses lease. You can make a reference to a discount or incentive in the additional provisions panel of a transfer or in the body of a lease if necessary. In this respect, please note that the UK Finance Disclosure Form is a ‘tool’ to help lenders assess how much they are prepared to lend, and HM Land Registry will not look at this to determine the entry we make.

Please see Appendix: examples of discounts and incentives for examples of discounts and incentives.

6. Forms of entry when the exact price or value is known

The following forms of entry will appear in proprietorship registers.

“The price stated to have been paid on [date of disposition] was £xxx.”

“The price, other than rents, stated to have been paid on the grant of the lease was £xxx.”

“The value stated as at [date of application] was £xxx.”

7. Forms of entry if the value is assessed from the level of fees paid

The following forms of entry will appear in proprietorship registers.

“The value as at [date of application] was stated to be under/over £xxx.”

“The value as at [date of application] was stated to be between £xxx and £yyy.”

8. Length of time the information remains in the register

The information will stay in the register until there is a further change of ownership that results in a new price or value entry being made. A price paid or value stated entry is not misleading just because it is historic as a date is also recorded as part of the register entry. An entry will also not be misleading merely because, for example, renovation work has enhanced the value of the property since a sale.

9. Reliability of information

The entry is based on the information provided to us. It may not represent the full market value of the property. The entry makes it clear that the figure represented is based on what we have been told. We will not verify it. In some cases, it may not represent the complete picture. For instance, when the parties are associated with each other there could be many reasons why the price paid is not the full value of the property or when a transfer or lease mentions a discount or cashback we will enter the lowest or net value.

10. Absence of an entry

The fact that a price paid entry does not appear in the register does not necessarily mean there has been a gift of the property. The price paid information provided may have been misleading (for some reason associated with the nature of the transaction concerned) or the price may not have been readily ascertainable. It is also possible that HM Land Registry received the application to register the change of ownership before 1 April 2000 (which is when we started entering the price paid in the register) or some aspect of the transaction would make the entry of value stated misleading.

Examples of when we may not make an entry are:

• transfers of shares (where only the value of the share is given)
• transfers subject to a charge
• only part of the property is being acquired on the death of a joint proprietor
• purchase of the freehold by the existing leaseholder who is applying for merger of their lease
• transfers that refer in the consideration panel to unpaid purchase money or obligations to pay further sums
• transfers that include more than 5 titles and the consideration has not been apportioned
• transfer in settlement of a debt, by way of distribution in specie or in consideration of shares

In these cases, we will not make any fresh entry of the price paid or value stated but we will retain any existing price paid or value stated entry.

11. Information published by HM Land Registry

HM Land Registry publishes aggregated residential property price information. We also provide aggregated information down to postal sector level and since February 2012 we have published monthly data on the price paid for individual residential property sales. Since October 2015 we have also published monthly price paid for transfers under a power of sale/repossessions, buy-to-lets (where they can be identified by a mortgage) and transfers to non-private individuals. We have no plans to publish aggregated information relating to commercial properties. You can obtain copies of registers or individual properties by applying for an official copy of the relevant register of title.

12. Background information

Before 1 April 2000 HM Land Registry entered the price paid in the register but only when this was requested. Following consultation in 1997, the Lord Chancellor decided to adopt a proposal to amend the Land Registration Rules so a price paid or a value should always be entered in the register when it is practicable to do so.

The issue of privacy was given very careful consideration. However, in many countries the price paid for a particular property was already a matter of public record, most notably Scotland since 1617, and this had not appeared to have caused any problems. The price paid was already public in some circumstances from other sources, such as where the property was sold at auction. It was considered that the benefits attached to the availability of this information outweighed privacy arguments. The entry of a price paid or value in the register complies with human rights and data protection legislation.

13. Obtain price paid information relating to a particular property

Order an official copy of the register using form OC1, which you can obtain from The Stationery Office or any law stationer. Alternatively, you can download the form OC1. Send the form OC1, together with the appropriate fee under the current Land Registration Fee Order (see HM Land Registry: Information Services fees), to HM Land Registry (see HM Land Registry address for applications).

Portal customers can order official copies online.

14. Appendix: examples of discounts and incentives

14.1 Example 1

Panel 9 of form TP1 states “The transferor has received from the transferee the sum of £403,000 and the transferee has received from the transferor the incentives”.

The transfer states that the incentives are “£1,500 towards legal fees and £20,000 towards the deposit”.

We would need you to confirm whether the price paid quoted in panel 9 of the form TP1 of £403,000 is the gross or net value paid. If the price stated is the gross price, we will need to deduct £20,000, as we consider this to be a discount. The £1,500 towards legal fees should be included in the price paid, as this is an incentive.

14.2 Example 2

The consideration in the transfer is “£180,000 less the monetary incentives referred to at clause 1.2 of the contract for sale dated [ ] and made between the transferor and the transferee”.

The contract for sale refers to a “monetary incentive given by the seller to the buyer: deposit paid £9,050”.

We will deduct this “monetary incentive” from the consideration, entering £170,950 as the price paid. Our view is that this is in fact a discount. A seller can’t pay a deposit to themselves – they are, in effect, reducing or discounting the sale price to exclude the sum that would otherwise normally be paid as a deposit.

14.3 Example 3

The premium in clause LR7 of a lease states “£807,500 comprising £792,500 for the flat and £15,000 for furniture and fittings”. The amount for the furniture and fittings is not an incentive because the tenant is paying for these items. Based on this, we will enter the price paid as £792,500.

15. Things to remember

We only provide factual information and impartial advice about our procedures. Read more about the advice we give.