Registration of Lordship Title

 

There has never been any mandatory requirement to register lordship titles at the Land Registry, and after Land Registry Act 2002 came into force on the 13 October 2003, it has been impossible to do so.

 

This has resulted in there being no comprehensive list recognised in law of all still in existence; and surviving.

lordship titles in England and Wales. Charles Harpum and Janet Bignell, Registered Land: Law and Practice under the Land Registration Act 2002 (2004), p.18), quotes the absence of any requirement to register creates uncertainty.

 

In Law, if a lordship is asserted but not registered, it will still be recognised by law if the party asserting its existence can establish that they are the owner of the lordship title.

 

Registration of lordship rights otherwise known as manorial rights was required by the Land Registry Act 2002 with the consequence that the manorial lordship rights not registered before 13 October 2013 would cease to be overriding interests, if the land otherwise subject to them was thereafter sold to a third party. 

 

The manorial rights affected included the lord of the manor sporting rights and mineral rights, and they could still be registered after 12 October 2013 if the land had not been sold.

 

The eventual outcome is that land which has been in continuous ownership since before 13 October 2013 may be subject to manorial rights belonging to a lord of the manor whom the owner of the land has no way of knowing exists.

 

If the manorial rights incidental to the lordship title were registered at the Land Registry before the first

transfer of an interest in the ownership of the land after 12 October 2013, then the land will remain subject to those manorial rights.

 

This will explains why there was a rush by landowners who were also lords of the manor to register there lordship rights before 13 October 2013.

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The registration of lordship titles at the Land Registry has never been mandatory, and since the implementation of the Land Registry Act 2002 which became effective on 13 October 2003, it is not impossible to do so now.

 

There is no legally recognized comprehensive list of all still in existence; and surviving lordship titles in England and Wales. While some highly educated barristers have argued that the registration of manors offers little benefit, the absence of a registration requirement creates uncertainty.

 

If a lordship is claimed but not registered, it will still be recognized by law if the claimant can prove ownership of the lordship title.

 

Finally, the 2002 Act mandated the registration of certain types of lordship rights, commonly referred to as manorial rights and failure to register these rights before 13 October 2013 would result in their loss of overriding interest and failure if the land was subsequently sold to a third party.

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However the change in law did not affect freehold rights in manorial waste, which is by definition freehold belonging to the manor and this can still be registered if sufficient evidence to satisfy the  LRA can be presented.

 

These manorial rights include the lord of the manor sporting and mineral rights, can still be registered after 12th October 2013 if the land has not been sold.

 

And as a result, land that has been continuously owned before 13th October 2013 may be subject to manorial rights belonging to an unknown lord of the manor.

 

And if the manorial rights incidental to the lordship title were registered at the Land Registry before the first disposition of the land after 12 October 2013, then the land will remain subject to those rights. This explains why landowners who were also lords of the manor rushed to register their lordship rights before 13 October 2013. 

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