Paper certificates called ‘title information documents’ are now issued for all registrations and most title deeds are redundant.

This means that when a transaction is completed and your solicitor registers the property into your name, the pre-registration deeds, where they are applicable to the land and referred to in the certificate, are either retained by the Land Registry, destroyed or returned to the owner of the land - almost for novelty purposes.

Most banks will now not hold on to pre-registration deeds as a paper certificate is less cumbersome and seen to be very practical.

The paper certificate is simply a print out of the electronic registers of title held by the Land Registry. The electronic registers are live and can be viewed on a computer screen and most importantly, are open to the public. This means that because all matters on your register, including any document which is referred to in the register, are open to public inspection, any previous confidentiality is now lost.

As a matter of fact, the Land Registry is under a statutory obligation to enter the price paid for the land whenever practicable. Even the terms of a confidentiality clause within a document will not override the obligations of the Land Registry to enter the price paid.

Is this an invasion of privacy? Apparently not. The Land Registry issued a consultation paper in 1997 and on consideration of the responses the proposal to enter the price paid was adopted.

It is possible however, to make an application to the Land Registry to protect commercially or personally sensitive material on the register and a solicitor can help with this application.

It means that a document can be given ‘exempt information document’ (EID) status. From a commercial viewpoint and before you apply for registration of the transaction, you should consider what terms contained within the documents are commercially sensitive. Think about financial arrangements; bank facility letters; a lease which grants preferential terms to one tenant but not to others; overage or uplift provisions; restrictive covenants and so on.

If a document is then given EID status, any sensitive information within it, is edited or blanked out before a copy is supplied to anyone. However such status will only be conferred if the editing of such information will not prejudice the registers of title. The lesson? Review all potentially sensitive documents associated with land transactions before they are sent to the Land Registry upon completion of a deal and apply to protect any ‘prejudicial information’.

For more information contact Julie Lloyd on 01793 511055 or julie.lloyd@clmlaw.co.uk