Land Registry faces legal action over local land charges consultation

The Land Registry has been threatened with judicial review proceedings over a consultation it is holding on widening its powers to provide local land charges (LLC) searches.

The Association of Independent Personal Search Agents (IPSA) is seeking to challenge the seven-week timeframe for the consultation, claiming that 12 weeks was required.

It also insisted that the consultation period “should not commence until the legality of charging all and any fees for property search related environmental information has been explained and established”.

IPSA highlighted legal uncertainty on this issue, saying HM Revenue & Customs had received a legal opinion and would be reporting back to the CIPFA Value Added Tax committee in March 2014.

It added that “an information tribunal took place on 16 December 2013 to specifically decide whether the cost recovery model proposed by Land Registry is permissible under the Environmental Information Regulations”.

The association said: “It is substantially unfair to run a consultation exercise when the private sector does not have the benefit of expert legal advice obtained by the public sector and the decision of the tribunal on whether cost recovery charging is permissible under the EIR has not yet been released.”

It continued: “It is unfair to expect individuals to obtain legal advice and comment on proposals likely to destroy their livelihoods in a substantially shorter time than publicly funded bodies instructing expert external lawyers have been given.”

The Land Registry claimed last month that a prototype run in 2013 with seven local authorities had been a success.

In its consultation paper, Wider Powers and Local Land Charges, it proposed that it should become sole registering authority for LLCs and be a provider of LLC search results.

The Land Registry argued that the move would make it “better placed to serve the changing needs of its customers, align with its stakeholder priorities and contribute to economic growth”.

The consultation also looks at the consequential relationship it would have with local authorities.

The Local Land Charges Institute last week warned in a letter to the Minister for Business and Enterprise, Michael Fallon, that the proposed takeover of the LLC function by the Land Registry would lead to “a more fragmented, more costly and less reliable service than that which already exists”.