How Do I Prove I Own My House?

• The legal proprietor (owner) should be named in the title documents.
• If the property is registered, you can obtain an official copy from the Land Registry for £7 per document.
• If the property is unregistered, you will need to collect evidence and submit an application for first registration.
• You can prove your beneficial ownership of a house if you have a deed declaring your shares.
• If you need to prove you own your house to comply with a Form LL restriction, our solicitor can verify this for you online.
• You may be able to prove you part own your house if you have paid money into someone else's property and you can prove you both originally intended for this to earn you a share.
• If you need to prove ownership of land with the position of a boundary, you may need the help of a land surveyor.

How do I know if I own the house?

If you are a legal owner, you should be named on the title deeds. This is a series of official ownership documents which record the registered proprietors of the property, as well as the ownership history; mortgages, charges, and restrictions; lease information (if applicable); and any registered deeds which affect the beneficial ownership of the property.

Is the property registered at the Land Registry?

If the property is registered at HM Land Registry, getting an official copy of the title deed is fairly straightforward, costing just £7. Land registration did not become compulsory across England and Wales until 1990, meaning that properties which haven't changed hands since then are still unregistered, leaving around 15% of the freehold land in England and Wales unregistered.

If the property is unregistered, the legal owner should hold the title deeds, and the previous owner should have provided these on sale or transfer. However, if the mortgage lender owns the title deeds and you've paid off the mortgage, you'll need to request a redemption statement.

If you think you own an unregistered property but you don't have the deeds, proving ownership can be a little trickier:

How to prove house ownership in the UK?

You can get official copies of the Title Register, Title Summary, or Title Plan with Government form OC1 and any Filed Deeds with form OC2, which must be downloaded and posted with the £7 fee per document. However, if the property is unregistered, you'll need to prove and register your ownership at the Land Registry.

Make an application for first registration at the Land Registry

• 1Print and complete the Land Registry application for first registration.
• 2Provide a title plan.
• 3Supply additional documents including a declaration of how long you've owned the property and how you became owner.
• 4Pay the Land Registry Fee.
• 5Post the form and all the supporting documents to the Land Registry.

Supporting documents may include mortgage documents, buildings insurance, and any property tax statements including the SDLT statement from your purchase.

If this application is successful, you'll likely receive possessory freehold title, which can usually be upgraded later to absolute title.

How do I protect my home ownership against fraud?

As the registered legal owner, you are still vulnerable to property fraud, particularly if you do not live at the address. If a criminal is able to impersonate you, they may fraudulently sell your home to an innocent buyer, who will register themselves as the new owner without your knowing.

A Form LL restriction prevents a 'new owner' from registering themselves as the legal proprietor unless a solicitor verifies your identity as the seller. You'll have to verify your identity to prove you own the property before you can make a 'disposition' such as selling or mortgaging it. Without this, if the buyers can register themselves as the new proprietor, you may have to fight in court for years to get your property back, as one unfortunate homeowner in Luton recently discovered.

Get in touch to find out how we can help to apply a form LL restriction to your property.

Do you need to prove you own your home for Form LL compliance?

If you already have a Form LL restriction on your property, you'll need a solicitor to verify your identity to prove you own your home before you can make a disposition. We can do this from 28/10/2024** for just £151 INC VAT, plus £50 per additional owner.

How do you prove that the land is yours?

Proving ownership of land works just the same as proving ownership of a house. It may become more complicated where the boundaries are less clear in, say, an open field, than at the edge of a residential garden. If there is no title plan, you will need to have one drawn up to determine the boundary. Sometimes this can be done using the title plans of neighbouring boundary lines, but these come with a caveat:

'This title plan shows the general position of the boundaries: it does not show the exact line of the boundaries. Measurements scaled from this plan may not match measurements between the same points on the ground'.

You may need a boundary surveyor to assess the land and create technically correct official drawings for your application.

How do I prove I own the land around my house in a boundary dispute?

Sometimes it is not enough to have a carefully measured technical plan of your boundaries. If a neighbour has encroached over the boundary and treated it as their own for (usually) 10-12 years, without your permission (this may be as simple as having mown an adjoining section of your lawn consistently), then they can make a claim for adverse possession. This mechanism exists to prevent neglect and abandoned land, and can significantly alter the boundaries of land ownership over time. Get in touch if you need help from a boundary dispute solicitor.