How to Get the Title Register for Any Property in England & Wales — £7, Online, in Minutes
By Dave Adams · Updated 12 July 2026
You can download the official title register for any registered property in England and Wales for £7, from HM Land Registry's website, in about five minutes. It shows the registered owner, the price paid (in most cases since 2000), the tenure, and every mortgage or charge secured on the property — including who the lender is. You don't need to be the owner, and you don't need a solicitor.
Most people believe property ownership information is private, expensive, or locked behind solicitors. In England and Wales it is none of those things: the land register is a public register, and the £7 official copy is one of the best-value documents in UK property.
What you get for £7
The title register (officially, an "official copy of the register of title") has three sections:
- A — Property Register: what and where the property is, its tenure (freehold or leasehold), and rights that benefit it.
- B — Proprietorship Register: who owns it — the registered proprietor's name and address for service — plus, usually, the price paid if it changed hands since April 2000.
- C — Charges Register: every registered mortgage and charge, and the lender that holds each one, plus restrictions and other burdens.
A separate document, the title plan (also £7), shows the property's boundaries on an Ordnance Survey base map. For most research purposes the register is the one you want; buy the plan when extent matters.
Step by step
- Open the official HM Land Registry service. Go to HM Land Registry's "Search for land and property information" service on GOV.UK. Use the official service — dozens of lookalike sites resell the same documents at £20–40. If the site charges more than £7 per document, you're not on the official one.
- Search by postcode or address. Most urban property in England and Wales is registered; if it is, you'll see the title number(s).
- Watch for multiple titles. One building can carry several — a freehold title plus leasehold titles for each flat, for example. Commercial property and portfolios often span many titles. Check you have the right one (the register description in section A confirms it).
- Create an account and pay £7 per document by card. No subscription, no minimum.
- Download the PDF. Usually available immediately.
If you already have the title number (from a lease, a search, or a data service), you can order against the number directly and skip the address search — faster and unambiguous.
Reading the register like a professional
- Owner is a company? Cross-check it on Companies House (free): status, accounts, and — critically — the charges register, which shows all secured borrowing across the company, not just on this property.
- The charges section tells you the leverage story. No entries in section C means the property is unencumbered on the face of the register. Multiple charges to multiple lenders tells you refinancing history and who controls any enforced sale.
- Price paid + date gives you the owner's basis — context for any conversation about value.
- Tenure matters: leasehold registers refer to the lease; the freehold title is a separate document.
Why this document matters when a company owner is in difficulty
When a property-owning company enters insolvency — a winding-up petition, administration or liquidation — the title register is the authoritative record of the position: who is the registered proprietor, which lenders hold charges (they control what happens next), and what the tenure is. £7 against a five-or-six-figure decision is not where you economise, and an official copy you purchase yourself comes with HM Land Registry's own terms of use.
Aggregate weekly figures on UK property-company insolvency are published free on our UK Property Insolvency Tracker.
New to reading distress signals? Start with how to find distressed property in the UK and winding-up petitions explained.
Frequently asked questions
Q: How much does it cost to get title deeds in the UK?
A: £7 per document from HM Land Registry's official online service, for any registered property in England and Wales. The title register and the title plan are £7 each. Third-party websites resell the same documents for £20–40 — never necessary. (Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate registers with their own fees.)
Q: Can I find out who owns a property for free?
A: Not officially, for a specific property — the £7 register is the authoritative source. Free routes exist for company-owned property in aggregate (HM Land Registry publishes corporate ownership datasets), but for a definitive answer on one property, the £7 official copy is the document.
Q: Are 'title deeds' and the 'title register' the same thing?
A: For registered land, the register is the proof of ownership — the old paper deeds ceased to be the legal record when the title was registered. What people mean by 'getting the title deeds' today is almost always getting the official copy of the register, which is exactly what the £7 buys.
Q: Is it legal to look up property I don't own?
A: Yes. The land register of England and Wales is a public register, open by design since 1990 — transparency of land ownership is the policy. Anyone can buy an official copy of any registered title.
Q: Can I contact the owner after buying the title register?
A: The official copy shows the proprietor's name and address for service, and buying it yourself from HM Land Registry puts you under HMLR's own terms of use. Be aware that bulk Land Registry datasets carry licence restrictions on direct marketing, so an official copy you have purchased yourself is the cleaner basis for any contact. A specific, respectful, individual approach is a different thing from a mail-merge, legally and commercially.
Q: What if the property isn't registered?
A: Around 85–90% of land in England and Wales is registered, and virtually everything that changed hands since the 1990s. Unregistered land (typically long-held rural or estate land) has no register to buy — ownership sits in paper deeds. If the search returns nothing, that itself tells you something about how long the owner has held it.
DealSource Pro publishes a weekly briefing on UK property companies entering insolvency. The Brief £99/mo · The Desk £249/mo. How it works. Information service compiled from official public records; not legal or financial advice.