Guidance

Practice guide 72: development schemes

Updated 25 November 2019

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. Overview

When a local or other public authority, or a company or other corporate body, acquires a specified area of land in a piecemeal fashion over a period of time (for example, for a redevelopment programme), it may ask HM Land Registry to make arrangements to incorporate each parcel of land into a single registered title as it is acquired. This is called a ‘development scheme’.

1.1 Development schemes and scheme titles

Development schemes have taken the place of scheme titles and are based on revised registration processes. Existing scheme titles that are in progress and remain active will continue to be processed as agreed with the developer.

1.2 Benefits

Whether the development land is acquired compulsorily or voluntarily, HM Land Registry’s development scheme procedure offers a number of benefits.

• It allows you to build up progressively the registered title to an area that you acquire in separate parcels
• You do not have the inconvenience of numerous separate registered titles that will eventually require an application for amalgamation
• Nominated staff oversee the processing of all applications during the lifetime of the development scheme under arrangements agreed with you
• Before the scheme commences, you can discuss with us any known problems about the extent or the evidence of title, and we can make detailed arrangements for the preparation, lodgement and processing of applications
• While the scheme is in progress, we will liaise with you to resolve unexpected issues

2. Application for a development scheme

2.1 Preliminary consideration

You will need to supply HM Land Registry with all the relevant facts before a decision can be made as to whether a development scheme will be appropriate and what extent it will cover. Once you have established which HM Land Registry office will deal with the application (see Making initial contact and submitting applications), you should write to us as early as possible enclosing a plan identifying the total area that you are acquiring. You must also supply a copy of any relevant compulsory purchase order. Your letter should:

• explain the development planned for the area
• give the fullest information available as to the programme for acquiring and, if appropriate, for disposing of the new properties within it, and
• set out the interests in the land that will need to be acquired (for example, the extent of leasehold interests or rentcharges or portions of land where it may be difficult to establish ownership)

To ensure the successful operation of the development scheme, it is essential that you intend to acquire the properties within a reasonable time. The title to the land to be acquired may be wholly registered, wholly unregistered or a mixture of both.

We will register leasehold interests and rentcharges within the development scheme separately see Leasehold and rentcharge acquisitions.

The success of the procedure depends upon careful planning in the first stages. After you have supplied us with the necessary basic information, we will normally ask to meet with you. If we decide to go ahead with the scheme, then it is essential that we liaise closely. You must make us aware immediately of any problems that arise and of any change in your development plans.

2.2 Finalising arrangements

If we decide that the development scheme procedure can be used, we will ask you to supply one or more large-scale plans based on the latest edition of the Ordnance Survey map (normally at a scale of 1:1250 in urban areas and 1:2500 in rural areas) showing by coloured edging the location and extent of all the land intended to be acquired.

The scheme plans you supply must meet our requirements for the identification of land to be registered – these are set out in practice guide 40: HM Land Registry plans: guide overview. If you hold mapping data in a compatible form, we may be able to arrange to import the plans electronically.

We will then supply you with a reference number that must be quoted in all applications, enquiries and correspondence that relate to the development scheme. If the area is large, we will discuss with you the subdivision of the extent to provide title plans at a manageable size. We will allocate a reference number for each part of the scheme that is to be separately registered.

We will ask you to provide an extract from the scheme plan on each application to show the extent of the land to be added, except in cases where an extract from the scheme plan is used as the plan to the deed inducing registration.

In addition, we may prepare a memorandum of understanding setting out the arrangements for the lodgement and processing of applications.

2.3 Registration of land within a development scheme

On receipt of the first application from you to register a parcel of land within the proposed development scheme (or within each part in the case of a subdivided scheme), we will allocate a title number. Subsequent additions will be made by amalgamation with this title.

2.4 Leasehold and rentcharge acquisitions

Where the superior interest has not already been acquired and registered, we will create separate titles for leasehold estates and rentcharges, and for estates to which different classes of registered title can be granted. If and when you acquire the superior interest, you should make an application to close any subordinate titles that have already been registered.

If appropriate evidence is available, you should also apply to upgrade possessory titles. See practice guide 42: upgrading the class of title.

2.5 Stopping-up orders

Where you have acquired the land on both sides of a road or way that is subject to a stopping-up order and intend to include the site of the road or way in the redevelopment, you should apply to add it to the development scheme. You should lodge the original or an official copy of the stopping-up order (including any plan annexed to it) to support the application, and we will retain this.

2.6 Restrictive covenants and easements

With every application for first registration, you should supply full particulars of all incumbrances affecting the land. This includes any restrictive covenants and easements subsisting at the date of the acquisition, even where the purchaser is a body with compulsory powers. We must note the existence of such third-party rights on the register because, even if planning law authorises development and use of the land in breach of them, they are not normally extinguished and may become enforceable if the land ceases to be used for the purpose for which the purchaser had the power to acquire it.

We will omit restrictive covenants and easements from the register only if:

• they are permanently extinguished by statute, or
• there is evidence that they have merged on unity of seisin with the acquisition of the whole of the benefiting and burdened land. In the case of restrictive covenants this is often difficult to establish

2.7 Completion of development scheme

When all the land has been acquired and added to the scheme, you should tell us:

• that the scheme is complete, and
• whether or not the land within the scheme has been redeveloped, so that we have the opportunity (if necessary) to complete a survey

Where required, you should also apply for the closure of any remaining leasehold or rentcharge titles.

2.8 Progress

We will monitor the progress of applications. We will not normally maintain development scheme arrangements if there are no applications to add land for a period of 6 months. If this happens, we will contact you to discuss closure.

2.9 Retention of documents submitted with applications

If your application is a first registration, original documents are normally required.

A conveyancer may, however, make an application for first registration on the basis of certified copy deeds and documents only. For information about this, see practice guide 1: first registrations – Applications lodged by conveyancers – acceptance of certified copy deeds.

If your application is not a first registration, we will only need certified copies of deeds or documents you send to us with HM Land Registry applications. Once we have made a scanned copy of the documents you send to us, they will be destroyed. This applies to both originals and certified copies.

However, any original copies of death certificates or grant of probate will continue to be returned.

3. Official copy applications

Official copies of both the register and title plan are available during the time the development scheme is in operation, using form OC1 – see practice guide 11: inspection of the register and applications for official copies.

4. Making initial contact and submitting applications

We recommend that you write to HM Land Registry at our standard address. Alternatively, you can telephone Customer Support.

If the development scheme will constitute a large-scale application, you should initially contact the bulk application team - see practice guide 33: large scale applications and calculation of fees. A large-scale application is one that affects:

• more than 50 unregistered properties
• more than 200 properties some of which are registered
• areas covered by more than one HM Land Registry office

To apply to register the conveyance or transfer in favour of the purchaser, use form FR1 for unregistered land or form AP1 for registered land in the usual way. No separate application form is needed for the addition of the land to the development scheme, but you must include a covering letter quoting the reference number we allocate and an extract from the scheme plan showing the land affected, except in cases where an extract from the scheme plan is used as the plan to the deed inducing registration.

The fee is payable in accordance with the current Land Registration Fee Order in respect of each acquisition, see HM Land Registry: Registration Services fees. Payment should accompany the delivery of each application or each batch of applications sent as a single packet. Where appropriate, see also the guidance on fees given in practice guide 54: acquisition of land by general vesting declaration.

Please note that HM Land Registry may be unable to process applications that are incomplete or defective and your application will risk losing its priority if we have to return it to you. See practice guide 49: return and rejection of applications for registration for more information.

5. Things to remember

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