Guidance

Developing estates: registration services. Estate boundary approval (practice guide 41, supplement 1)

Updated 9 May 2023

Applies to England and Wales

Please note that HM Land Registry’s practice guides are aimed primarily at solicitors and other conveyancers. They often deal with complex matters and use legal terms.

1. Introduction

Estate boundary approval is a free service that we provide before the layout has been designed. Its purpose is to compare the developer’s first site survey with the extent of the registered title. This service also offers the following advantages

• differences between the boundaries of the registered title and the physical external boundaries on site can be identified at the earliest opportunity
• the developer and HM Land Registry can work together safe in the knowledge that both are making decisions based on the same external boundaries
• HM Land Registry can tell you whether or not specific easements that you intend to grant fall within the registered extent of the development. We can also advise on those falling outside the registered extent

2. How to apply

Simply send us a copy of the site survey plan as prepared by the land surveyor clearly showing the extent of the land included in the development. Supplement 5 to this practice guide gives detailed information on the specification of plans. Notes explaining the nature of the external boundaries, eg new estate fence on line of existing hedge, are also useful to match your survey with Ordnance Survey detail. You can send the plans to us either with the application to register the site or after completion of the registration. However, we will not be in a position to approve the plans until after completion of the registration.

Boundary plans for approval should be sent via the form on GOV.UK. Please note the application for registration of the land would need to be lodged in the normal manner before this, as the application for registration cannot be accepted by email.

We will compare the external boundaries shown on your site survey plan with the boundaries of the registered title and the latest Ordnance Survey map. Providing the boundaries agree, we will approve them.

This approval does not confirm that development planning permission has been sought or obtained. Planning permission is dealt with by local planning authorities and not by HM Land Registry. In some cases we may decline to approve a draft estate boundary plan if we consider that granting approval may mislead members of the public into believing that future development is likely, such as when approval is sought for plans for what appears to be a land banking investment scheme (where a landowner divides their land into many small plots to sell and they claim that the plots have good investment value, usually in the expectation of future development).

Please direct all requests for estate boundary approval using the form on GOV.UK or, if you are an HM Land Registry portal user, through the Specialist Support Services area in the HM Land Registry portal.

3. Things to remember

We only provide factual information and impartial advice about our procedures. Read more about the advice we give.