If the proposals become law it will represent a significant shift in how agreements are treated under the land registration system in England and Wales. DLUHC is of the view this will promote greater transparency for those dealing with real estate.
The consultation anticipates the regulations will commence on 6 April 2026.
Impact
Those likely to be impacted will include developers, landowners, land promoters and local authorities and the proposals will apply to residential and commercial property and mixed-use development.
Types of agreement in scope
The consultation identifies a variety of agreement types that may trigger the requirement to disclose data and includes:
- Pre-emption agreements
- Conditional contracts
- Promotion agreements
- Options
The list is not closed. An agreement will fall within scope if it meets certain requirements set out in the consultation but broadly comprises an agreement to "facilitate the future development of an estate in land".
Registration requirements
If an agreement falls within scope certain data from it (but not the agreement itself) must be provided to HMLR within statutorily prescribed time limits. DLUHC say the data it wants to capture strikes a balance between the requirement for transparency and the risk of publishing commercially sensitive information or information that is not useful.
The proposed dataset includes:
- Agreement type
- Contracting parties
- Registration numbers of contracting parties
- Agreement date
- Start date
- End date
- Territorial extent
- Title numbers
- SRA number of legal professionals involved
- Details of entitlement to extend the agreement
From the date of commencement of the regulations a "grantee" (being the person entitled to call for a land transfer or to enforce provisions that prevent the registered proprietor making a disposition) to a new land agreement will have 60 days in which to provide the required data. The obligation to provide data will arise independently of whether the parties decide to protect their agreement on the register or the registration status of the underlying transaction.
There is a separate duty to disclose any variations or assignments of land agreements that are in scope.
A conveyancer (as defined under the Land Registration Rules) will be required to submit the data to HMLR to ensure its accuracy.
Retrospective?
The DLUHC anticipates collecting data in relation to existing agreements entered into from 6 April 2021 and grantees will have a year (calculated from 6 April 2026) in which to provide this data as part of a transition period. Otherwise the data must be provided within 60 days.
DLUHC suggests that certain agreements (i.e., those for less than 12 months) will be exempt.
Enforcement
The information collected will be publicly available.
Enforcement will be by way of criminal sanctions and fines and those not complying with the disclosure requirements will not be able to protect their land agreements.
Consultation response
In addition to previously confidential data becoming a matter of public record the proposals will result in increased legal costs and place a significant administrative burden on those negotiating land agreements and HMLR both in relation to existing and new agreements and also where such agreements are assigned or varied.
Should you wish to respond to the consultation you can do so here.
The consultation closes on 20 March 2024.
