Adflow Marketing - Land Registry Search Service

Official Copies

Registers & Title Plans

An official copy is essential if it is to be produced in Court, for any conveyancing work or for inclusion in Home Information Packs.

The documents we supply in PDF format are official copies.

PDF's of title plans, title registers and any documents purchased through the public site (Land Register Online) are not official copies. An official copy is unmistakable as it clearly states in a large font "Official copy of register of title" and appears on watermarked paper. The 'Register View' is all that is available from the public site and now clearly states in red type that it is not an official copy within the meaning of the Land Registration Act 2002.

Transfers, Mortgages & Charges

We provide a service for our credit account clients to provide official copies of many other documents associated with the conveyancing process.

The Transfer. In most cases, this is the document that actually transfers the property from one owner to another and contains some useful information for the investigation industry. It is filed by the Land Registry and is in the public domain. It will provide an 'audit trail' between one owner and another and will also show the 'consideration'. The consideration is normally the price paid for the property but need not be for money or anything of a monetary value. If it is the former the actual amount of money changing hands will be shown; in the latter case there will be a note to this effect. This document is useful for showing the amount (if any) that has changed hands where it is absent from the register or where the transaction took place prior to April 2000. (This was the date that the registrar became under an obligation to show 'price paid' information on the register). As the Registrar has a discretion not to record the consideration if it does not reflect the true value of the property, its absence can reveal to you that this was not a normal arms-length transaction.

Example: You are investigating Mr Klein and believe he and his wife jointly owned a valuable property. The current official copy of the register shows that the property is now solely in his wife's name. There is no 'price paid' information on the register.

You believe Mr Klein has deliberately transferred assets to avoid his creditors and need to show that he was the joint owner; that the property is now in the name of his wife and there was a direct transfer form Him/Her to Her and that no money changed hands. An Historical Edition of the register will show both parties as owner; an up-to-date official copy will show the wife as sole proprietor and the Transfer will be proof positive that the property went directly from joint ownership to the wife and 'not for money or anything of a monetary value'. QED.

Alternatively, if Mr Klein has recently sold the property to an unrelated third party and you are trying to trace him, the Transfer may provide another avenue of investigation. The Transfer will have been signed by him and it is a document that has to be witnessed. The witness may well be a friend or neighbour and have some knowledge of his whereabouts. It may have been witnessed by his solicitor who will, almost certainly, know where he is.

Mortgage Deeds. In respect of first mortgages, less useful now since they have been in the public domain as most lenders tend to use a shorter version of their deed and do not state the amount borrowed. Terms to the effect 'all monies owed....' are used instead. Investigators however, will be able to glean some useful information from these documents especially Interim and Final Charging Orders issued as a result of a Court judgement which will often will show the judgement debt.