Property, Proprietorship and Charges Registers Explained

Three sections, three jobs

The layout of a title register has barely changed in decades: three sections, each answering a different question about the land. The property register says what is registered, the proprietorship register says who holds it and on what basis, and the charges register says what burdens it.

| Section | Core job | Watch for | | --- | --- | --- | | Property register | Identifies the land and rights benefiting it | Tenure, plan references, rights of way in your favour, lease details | | Proprietorship register | Records the owner and class of title | Names, price paid, restrictions on dealings | | Charges register | Records burdens on the land | Mortgages, restrictive covenants, notices |

The property register

This section opens with the tenure — freehold or leasehold — and a description of the land, normally by address, with a reference to the title plan ("the land shown edged with red on the plan of the above title").

Typical entries include:

• Rights that benefit the land, such as a right of way over a shared drive or a right to run drains under a neighbour's garden.
• Exclusions, where mines and minerals or other interests are excepted from the title.
• Lease particulars on leasehold titles: the date of the lease, the term, the parties and often a note of the rent.

A useful habit: anything in this section is generally good news for the owner, because it records what the title includes and enjoys.

The proprietorship register

This section states the class of title and names the registered proprietor with an address for service. The classes, briefly and factually:

1. Title absolute — the standard class for both freehold and leasehold, granted where the evidence of ownership was satisfactory.
2. Good leasehold — a leasehold class granted where the lease itself was proved but the landlord's freehold title was not examined.
3. Possessory — granted where ownership rested on possession rather than documents, often after deeds were lost or land was claimed through long use.
4. Qualified — rare, granted where a specific defect in the title was identified and excepted.

Two other kinds of entry live here:

• Price paid. Where the price was recorded at registration — routine for sales since the late 1990s — an entry states the amount and date. Its absence means nothing sinister; it usually just means the last transfer predates the practice or was not an ordinary sale.
• Restrictions. These control what can be registered. Common examples require a lender's consent before a disposition, or a second trustee's signature where co-owners hold as tenants in common.

The charges register

Everything here burdens the land:

• Registered charges — mortgages and secured loans, with a companion entry naming the lender. Balances are never shown.
• Restrictive covenants — promises limiting use of the land, often referred to by date and document ("the covenants contained in a Conveyance dated…"). The full wording may be available as a filed document.
• Easements burdening the land — a neighbour's right of way across the property, for instance.
• Notices — third-party claims or interests protected against the title.

Restriction vs restrictive covenant

The similar names cause endless confusion, so it is worth pinning down. A restriction (proprietorship register) is procedural: it stops a disposition being registered unless a stated condition is met. A restrictive covenant (charges register) is substantive: it is a promise about how the land may be used, which can bind successive owners. A title can carry both, one, or neither.

Getting the full record

Ordering the title register gives you all three sections in one document, and pairing it with the title plan makes the geographic references readable. You can order through our service — we check the address by hand, identify the title, contact you if more than one could match, and deliver by secure link. We are independent of HM Land Registry, and buying directly from HM Land Registry usually costs less; our fee covers the manual checking, retrieval and support.

This guide is general information, not legal advice — for questions about a specific entry, a conveyancer should read the register itself.