Legislation that will force owners and occupiers to disclose details of leases and freeholds comes into force on Monday.
The Land Registration Act 2002 will require all information to be logged with the Land Registry for all owned property and all leases over seven years.
The information will then be made available to the public unless the owner or leaseholder convinces the registry that it is sensitive.
The Conservatives have fiercely opposed the Act.
Shadow planning spokesman Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said it was “a snooper’s charter”.
Liz Peace, chief executive of the BPF, said: “We appreciate that this has been introduced in the interests of transparency, but one has to ask why it is really necessary.
“The process seems remarkably bureaucratic.”
References: EGi News 10/10/03
