Land registry search for any property in England and Wales

A land registry search gives you official copies of the records held for one title, delivered by email as PDFs.

Three documents cover almost every question people bring to us. The title register names the registered owner, states whether the title is freehold or leasehold, and lists mortgages, restrictions, rights and covenants. The title plan shows the land in the title edged in red on an Ordnance Survey base map.

The conveyancing pack contains official copies of the deeds the register refers to and keeps on file, such as a lease, a transfer or a deed of covenant. Where the register notes “Copy filed” against an entry, a copy exists and can be ordered. The title register, title plan and conveyancing pack pages explain each document entry by entry.

You do not need to be the owner, the buyer or a solicitor, because the register is a public record. What you cannot do is search it by a person’s name, which is why every order starts from an address or a title number.

The right document depends on the question you are trying to answer, and the table matches the common questions to the record and the place in it where the answer sits.

Two limits apply. The register does not normally show the balance owed on a mortgage, only that a charge exists and who holds it. The title plan shows general boundaries, not the exact legal line; the title plan page explains what that means.

If the question is “who owns it”, the register alone answers it, and the guide to finding out who owns a property explains the proprietorship entries. To see what is free to look up before spending anything, read what a free land registry search shows.

These five steps are the whole process from address to inbox.

1. Enter the address. Type a postcode and pick the property from the list, or enter the address manually. If you already have the title number (a reference such as TT123456), enter that instead and skip the lookup.
2. Choose the documents. Tick the title register, the title plan, the conveyancing pack, or any combination.
3. Tell us the tenure if you know it. The form offers freehold, leasehold and not sure. For a flat, choose leasehold unless you know otherwise.
4. Add your email address and confirm. The full amount is shown on the order page before you confirm. Nothing is ordered until you do.
5. Receive the PDFs. We match the address to a title, obtain the official copies and email them within 24 UK business hours. If the title needs your input first, we email you before ordering.

The PDFs open in any standard reader, and the register’s published guidance treats a print of an unmodified official copy PDF as an official copy.

Within 24 UK business hours means the documents arrive by the same time on the next business day, because the 24 hours are counted only on Monday to Friday and the count pauses over weekends and England and Wales bank holidays. The table shows orders placed at 4pm on different days, including Christmas 2026.

Christmas Day 2026 falls on a Friday and Boxing Day on a Saturday, so the substitute bank holiday for Boxing Day is Monday 28 December 2026. Neither day counts towards the 24 hours.

Standard delivery is within 24 UK business hours; the fast-track option delivers within 1 UK business hour, counted the same way, so a fast-track order placed during business hours is due within the hour, and one placed after hours is due within the first hour of the next business day. An official copy shows the register as it stood when the copy was taken, so ordering earlier does not change its contents.

We search by address or by title number. The address search does one job: it matches the address you type to a title number, and we confirm that title against the address before anything is ordered. A title number is a prefix of letters followed by up to six digits, for example LA123456.

An address search suits a house with a normal postal address, where the postcode lookup returns one property and one title. A title number search suits anyone holding a document that quotes the number, and removes any doubt about which title is meant.

Five cases need more than an address, and each has a simple fix.

• Address or title number. If you have both, give the title number. If two titles could match the address (a house and a separate garage plot, say), tell us which you want.
• Flats and units. Each registered flat has its own leasehold title, and the building’s freehold is a separate title. Say which you need: the flat’s register, the freehold register, or both.
• New builds. A plot sold off a new development may still be a pending application at the register, in which case no official copy exists yet. We check and tell you rather than send the developer’s title in its place.
• Land without a postal address. Fields, paddocks, garages and strips of land often have no postcode. Describe the land, name the nearest road, and quote any title number on a document you hold.
• Unregistered land. Some land has never been registered, mostly land not sold or mortgaged since registration became compulsory in its area. No register exists for it, so no title register or plan can be supplied. Title deeds explains how ownership of unregistered land is proved.

An address missing from the lookup does not always mean the land is unregistered. Properties are sometimes filed under a different form of the address, or boundaries have changed since registration. Enter what you know and we will locate the title or tell you none exists.

The form asks for the tenure because it decides which title we look for. A freehold house usually has one title. A flat has a leasehold title of its own, sitting under a freehold title for the whole building, and the two registers say different things.

The leasehold register names the flat’s owner and gives the date, term and parties of the lease. The freehold register names the building’s owner and lists the flats’ leases in a schedule. Someone asking “who owns my flat” wants the first; someone asking “who is the freeholder” wants the second.

If you are not sure, choose “not sure” and we will read the register description, which states the tenure in its first entry, and confirm if the property has more than one title. Wales shares the same register, with bilingual headings; the Wales page covers the differences and the England page covers county prefixes and regional examples.

After you confirm, we match the address to a title, obtain the official copies and check each PDF against the address you supplied before it leaves us. A person reads the register description and the plan; it is not an automated file transfer.

The email carries the PDFs as attachments. An official copy of the register opens with a header giving the title number and edition date, then the sentence “This official copy shows the entries on the register of title on [date] at [time]”, which is the moment the copy was taken. The entries follow in up to three lettered parts and end with “End of register”.

If the title we find does not match the address, we email you before ordering rather than send a document you cannot use. Common causes are two titles at one address, a flat where the freehold was requested, or unregistered land. Reply with any document that quotes a title number and we will proceed from there.

If a document arrives and something in it looks wrong, reply to the same email or write to info@uklandregistryonline.org.uk. A person reads every reply.

This page and every product on this site are for titles in the official land register for England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland each keep a separate land register with their own documents, title references and way of showing ownership.

An England and Wales title register cannot be ordered for a property in Edinburgh or Belfast; those records are covered separately.

UK Land Registry Online obtains official copies from the official land register for England and Wales on your behalf and emails them to you. We do not give legal advice, so for what an entry means for your transaction, ask your conveyancer.

Every page on this site is written from the register’s published guidance and from genuine official copies, and is reviewed by a named editor. We do not publish reviews, ratings or order counts, because none of those tells you whether the document is the right one. The about page describes the editorial process and the reviewer.