| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act to facilitate Proof of Title to, and the Conveyance of, Real Estates. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 25 & 26 Vict. c. 53 |
| Territorial extent | England and Wales |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 29 July 1862 |
| Other legislation | |
| Amended by | Statute Law Revision Act 1875 |
| Repealed by |
|
Status: Repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
The Land Registry Act 1862 (25 & 26 Vict. c. 53) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was the country's first attempt at a system of universal land registration, specifically a title register, applying to England and Wales. [2] It replaced several local deed registries throughout England, which had been established in the early 1700s in order to protect against fraud conducted by undisclosed prior incumbrances on titles. [3] [4] The legislation simplified the transfer of land. [3] At the time, land ownership was difficult and expensive, and usually only done by the very privileged. [3] Registration under the 1862 act was also expensive, partially because it was necessary to map and survey the entirety of the property (this was fixed by later legislation). [4] 2,000 properties were registered under the act. [2]
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Opponents of deed registration at the time claimed that a general registry was unnecessary. [4] In practice, the conditions of sale at the time circumvented a number of the problems that motivated the legislation. [4] A system of deeds registration was also considered at the time: title registration was a new and untried system. [4] The prior deed registries had a number of problems, including those relating to notice, and the lack of standardized and reliable indexes to the considerably large documents. [4] General registry bills had previously been narrowly lost in Parliament in 1740 and 1758. [5]
This system quickly proved seriously flawed due to high costs and long delays. [5] Following further attempts in 1875 (a failure) and 1897 (a near-failure), the present system was brought into force by the Land Registration Act 1925, [4] as amended by the Land Registration Act 2002.
