How to find out who owns a property or piece of land in England and Wales

Finding the owner of a property in England and Wales takes five steps: identify the land, confirm it is registered, order the title register, read the proprietorship register, and, if the land turns out to be unregistered, follow the routes that do not depend on the register.

Most requests stop at step four, because the register names the owner directly. Step five matters for old farmland, strips of verge and garages that have never been sold since registration became compulsory in their area.

The register is organised by land, not by people, so the search starts with a precise description of the plot. For a house or a flat the postal address is enough. For a paddock, a garage block or a strip beside a road there is often no postal address, and the search has to work from a point on a map.

Take 27 Mill Lane, Kettering, a terraced house with a long back garden. The address finds the house title, but the garden may sit in a second title if a previous owner bought the strip separately. Where the land has no address, tell us what you know (the nearest house, the road name, a sketch) and we confirm the title before ordering.

Where the boundary matters as much as the owner, the title plan shows the extent of the registered land edged in red on an Ordnance Survey base.

A parcel of land is registered when the registry has opened an individual register for it, identified by a title number such as SYK123456 or TT654321. The title number is a county-based prefix of letters followed by a serial number, and every later document hangs off it.

The registry keeps an index map showing every registered title and every pending first registration, and a search against it confirms whether a piece of land is registered and which title numbers affect it. An unregistered result is unusual for a house but more likely for land that has not changed hands for decades.

An address search can fail even where the land is registered: the register’s published guidance says a property may be filed under the wrong address, a boundary may have moved since registration, or the address may be misspelt. Give us whatever you know and we check the title before anything is ordered.

The title register is the document that names the owner. An official copy is timed and dated, so it shows the entries on the register at that exact moment, and it is admissible in evidence to the same extent as the original register. The title register page explains all three parts entry by entry; on this page only the proprietorship register matters.

The order form asks for the property address, the tenure if you know it, the title number if you have one, and an email address. We check the document against the address supplied before it is sent and deliver it as a PDF within 24 UK business hours. One title register covers one title number, so a house and a separately registered garden would need two.

The proprietorship register is section B of the title register, and its first line states the class of title, in most cases “Title absolute”. The entry that answers the ownership question begins with the word PROPRIETOR in capitals, followed by the owner’s full name and an address. A typical entry for a couple who bought in 2019 reads:

1 (14.06.2019) PROPRIETOR: SARAH JANE OKAFOR and DANIEL OKAFOR of 27 Mill Lane, Kettering NN15 1AB.
2 (14.06.2019) The price stated to have been paid on 7 June 2019 was [amount].

The date in brackets is the date the entry was made in the register, not the date of the sale. The price entry has been made on sales since 1 April 2000 and stays until a later sale replaces it. No price is entered for gifts or transfers by survivorship.

The owner entry names whoever holds the legal title. Joint owners appear together in one PROPRIETOR entry, and the register does not say what share each holds or whether they are joint tenants or tenants in common. The one clue is the Form A restriction: present, the owners are probably tenants in common; absent, probably joint tenants; and the register’s published guidance says even this is not definitive.

A company appears with its registered name, its company registration number in brackets after the name, and an address for service. A council appears in the same way, usually with its civic offices as the address for service. The people who own or control a company are found on the public register of companies, not here.

Trusts are not shown. The register does not record beneficial shares and an interest under a trust of land cannot be protected by a notice, so the register does not say who benefits from the property. If the proprietor has died, the register goes on showing that person until the executors or a buyer apply to change it, because the entry does not change on its own.

You cannot search by the owner’s name because the register is indexed by land, not by people: each individual register is opened for a piece of land and given a title number, and the public search runs by address, map location or title number. That is why every route on this page starts with the land.

A name index does exist, but the register’s published guidance says a search against a living private individual is not available to the public because it involves personal data. A company name is treated differently. UK Land Registry Online searches by address or title number only; we do not offer owner-name searches.

Unregistered land has no title register and no title number, and the register cannot say who owns it. Ownership rests on the paper deeds, which the register’s published guidance says may be held by a solicitor, a mortgage lender or the owner. The answer has to come from people and local records.

The practical routes, in the order that usually works, are:

1. Ask the neighbours on each side and anyone who has farmed, grazed or maintained the land. Such land has often stayed with one family for decades.
2. Ask the seller or the agent, if the land is on the market or was recently for sale. A seller of unregistered land should have the deeds or know which solicitor holds them.
3. Ask the council. Councils hold planning history and highways records for their area, and a planning application on the plot will name an applicant.
4. Instruct a solicitor. A conveyancer can trace deeds through the last known solicitor or lender.

Compulsory registration reached the whole of England and Wales in 1990, and a transfer of unregistered land now triggers first registration, with the application due within two months of completion, so the pool of unregistered land shrinks with every sale. The title deeds page explains where old deeds sit.

Overgrown land next to your garden

Search by the nearest address first, then by a point on the map if nothing comes up. If the strip is registered, the title register names the proprietor, which for a leftover strip on a housing estate may be the developer that built it. If it is unregistered, start with the neighbours and the council’s planning records.

A flat where the freeholder is unknown

A registered flat has its own leasehold title, and its property register describes the lease with its date, term and original parties, and usually notes “Landlord’s title is registered” with the freehold title number. The freehold title for the building is a separate register that names the current freeholder. The lease itself, obtained in a conveyancing pack, names the landlord who granted it.

An empty house

The title register names the proprietor and the address for service, which for an empty house may be somewhere else entirely, such as a solicitor’s office, and is your best lead for a letter. If the proprietor has died, the entry may still show their name until the executors register the change.

A company that has been dissolved

The register shows the company exactly as it was entered, with its registration number, and does not say whether the company still exists. Check the number on the public register of companies, and if the company has been struck off, ask a solicitor what happens to its land.

The title register answers “who is the legal owner” and stops there. The table lists what people expect to find and where, if anywhere, it can be found instead.

An official copy shows the register at the date and time printed on it, in a line such as “This official copy shows the entries on the register of title on 23 JUN 2026 at 15:15:07.” Entries take effect from the time the application to make them was received.

There is a gap between a sale completing and the buyer’s name appearing, and as at September 2026 that gap runs to months rather than weeks for an ownership transfer or a first registration. While an application is pending, the official copy is backdated to the time before the earliest pending application, so a house sold two months ago will usually still show the seller as proprietor.