Public Private Information

April 18th, 2007 § 0 comments

The Land Registry Online.

If you’re buying or selling a house or are just interested in property, you’ll be glad you visited Land Register Online

Oh. Why?

For properties you are interested in, you can download for only £3 each:

  • a title plan defining the property

Do go on…

  • a title register where you can find out who owns the house or land, price paid/value stated information if sold since April 2000 and any rights of way or restrictions on the land

Really! Anything else?

For properties you are interested in, you can also download:

  • all leases relating to the property (if referred to in the Register and available electronically) for £10 each
  • all other documents relating to the property (if referred to in the Register and available electronically) for a total of £5

That’s good isn’t it? For a few quid, anyone can find out all the details of a property.
On the Guide to Service we see what info it gives away:

What property details can I obtain?
The title register information will generally include:

* a description of the property
* who owns it
* mortgage Lender (if any)
* price paid/value stated (if registered since 1st April 2000)
* rights of way (not public rights of way) or other rights affecting the property
* restrictions or other conditions

But why should all this information be made publicly available? Call me paranoid, but the only reason I can think of, that is not a negative one, for someone to try and find out who owns a particular property is to buy it. But then if somebody wants to contact the owner of a property then write to the address. One doesn’t need to know the name of the owner to make an offer.
Whos business is it of what the property consists of, unless a dispute needs settling, like rights of way? If the property is involved in a dispute then the relevent people will have a copy of the registry details,or will be entitled to abtain a copy. If someone wants to buy it the they will find
The Land Register will TELL ANYBODY WHO YOUR MORTGAGE LENDER IS!! I am open to suggestions as to why various organisations would want to know (I can’t actually think of any right now, except maybe credit reference agencies(?)) but then if they have a valid reason, they can apply stating and proving why they need that info. But what use is this info to anybody? It is nothing to do with anybody.

But why would private information be made available for anybody?
Again on the Guide to Service link the reasons are given:

Why is this information useful to me?
Typically, you…

* want to look at the title register, title plan and/or a document referred to in the register of a property you own
* want to find out who owns a specific property
* want to discover the extent of a property
* are interested in buying an unoccupied property you have noticed and wish to approach the owner
* lease or rent a property and need to contact the landlord

Wouldn’t a better system, that keeps details private, be that the Land Register would forward the request to the owner?
Example of what you get for your money here.
I am all for freedom of information for the government and various departments of state, but would the NHS give out private details? No. Why are the details about a property one owns any less private?

Labels: Privacy

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