Following widespread criticism of its plans to introduce a prescribed lease form, the Land Registry has decided to withdraw its proposals and to conduct a review.
The Land Registry had proposed that all new leases of registered land that were granted after October 2003 and required registration would have to be prepared using a single form (L1). It was also suggested that all variations of leases would have to be prepared on a form named VL1.
In the recent consultation on the draft rules supporting the Land Registration Act 2002, almost 80% of the responses relating to the above forms disagreed with the Land Registrys proposals. Although a number of the respondents could see the benefits of greater standardisation, most were concerned about the consequences of using a single form for the respective transactions.
Critics of the proposals had suggested that the introduction of a standard lease could increase their workload (and therefore legal costs). They also argued that the new forms would require in-house and managing agents to reprogramme their management systems to select information from different places within the lease.
In the light of such criticism, the Land Registry intends to remove the proposals from the draft rules. The Registry has indicated that it will be studying the responses with a view to bringing forward revised proposals in the second half of this year.
Any new proposals for prescribed forms of lease will be the subject of further consultation.
Propert-e News 17/1/03References: Propert-e News 17/1/03
