Selling / remortgaging

Selling or remortgaging an unregistered property

A sale or mortgage makes registration compulsory anyway. Doing it first — voluntarily — keeps you in control and cuts the fee.

The transaction that forces the issue

A sale, a gift, or a first mortgage of unregistered property are all “trigger events” — they make first registration compulsory. If you wait for one of these, you register on someone else’s timetable, at the higher compulsory fee, often while a buyer or lender waits.

Register first, sell smoothly

Registering voluntarily before you go to market means the title is clean and online when your buyer’s solicitor asks for it — one of the most common causes of last-minute delay, removed in advance. And you save 25% on the fee.

Compare

Voluntary now vs compulsory later

	Register voluntarily now	Wait for the sale / mortgage
Land Registry fee	Reduced by 25%	Full compulsory fee
Timetable	Yours	The buyer’s / lender’s
Title problems	Found and fixed calmly	Can surface mid-sale and cause delay or collapse
Deeds handling	Done in advance	Buyer’s solicitor must work through paper deeds

Fee figures are set by HM Land Registry and depend on value — always confirm the current scale.

Questions

Frequently asked

I’m already selling — is it too late?

Not necessarily. If a sale is under way, registration will be triggered anyway; a specialist can still help it run smoothly and, if an application is pending, ask HM Land Registry to expedite it. Talk to us as early as possible.

Does remortgaging really trigger registration?

Creating a first legal mortgage over unregistered property is a trigger event for compulsory first registration. Registering voluntarily first can make the remortgage cleaner.

Voluntary vs compulsory Costs & fees

Next step

Get a straight answer on your property

Send the address and what you know. We’ll confirm the status, explain your options and — if it helps — introduce a specialist solicitor with a fixed-fee quote.

Make an enquiry How it works

No obligation. We respond within 2 hours during business hours and confirm a specialist solicitor within 24 hours.