A registered title can look reassuringly complete – until you ask what sits underneath, or even above it.
Surface ownership and mineral ownership are not always the same thing. Mines and minerals may have been carved our decades or even centuries ago and left in the hands of a former landowner, a lord of the manor, a mining company, or another party. The details often live only in historic deeds that have never made it not the modern register.
For conveyancers, the important questions goes beyond ‘who owns the minerals?’, such as:
- What rights accompany that ownership?
- Is there a right to work or remove them?
- What provision has been made for access and support?
- If instability is identified, does responsibility sit with the mineral owner, a former operator, a statutory body – or nobody who can now readily be pursued?
What rights were reserved?
A reference to mines and minerals in HM Land Registry’s title register does not necessarily tell the full story.
The relevant transfer, conveyance or other supporting deed may be needed to establish what was excepted or reserved. The wording in that document may simply retain ownership of the minerals, or it may grant rights to work and remove them, enter the land or use underground access routes.
It may also deal (or remain silent) on the all-important question of support for the surface and any buildings above.
Separately owned mines and minerals are not always subject to compulsory registration. As HM Land Registry’s guidance makes clear, the absence of a separate mineral title does not necessarily prove the surface owner holds the mineral interest.
Ownership, working rights and access rights are related, but should not be treated as interchangeable.
Who is responsible if the ground becomes unstable?
A mineral reservation is not evidence that extraction has taken place, that the property is unstable or that the mineral owner would be responsible for any damage.
The minerals may never have been worked. Instability can stem from historic activity undertaken by a long-vanished company, from natural ground conditions or from another cause entirely.
Responsibility may therefore depend on four practical points:
- What caused the instability;
- Whether extraction occurred and who carried it out;
- The precise rights and liabilities in the deeds; and
- Whether a statutory compensation regime applies.
Coal is one example. Damage caused by lawful coal-mining operations sits inside a specific statutory framework, and responsibility may rest with a current mine operator or the Mining Remediation Authority.
The position can be less straightforward where historic non-coal extraction is involved. Old workings, incomplete records, and operators or landowner who no longer exist. Sorting it out can required legal, geological, structural and insurance expertise working together.
Knowing who owns the minerals is useful, but it does not, by itself, tell you who is liable for a stability problem.
Questions for conveyancers
Where the register or deeds mention mines and minerals, these are the practical checks:
- Are the mines and minerals included in, or excepted from, the surface title?
- Can the document that created the exception or reservation still be obtained?
- Does it grant rights of entry, working, extraction or underground access?
- What (if anything) does it say about support and liability?
- Is there evidence of historic mining, quarrying or other extraction that actually affects the property?
No single search will necessarily answer every question. The register and supporting deeds may provide evidence of ownership and the rights affecting the property.
Mining and minerals information supplies the other half of the due-diligence picture and what that may mean in practice.
Looking beyond the ownership entry
Mineral reservations are complex, but their presence should not automatically be treated as automatic evidence of a physical problem. The useful questions are simpler and more precise: who owns the minerals, what rights accompany that ownership, whether extraction has occurred, and where responsibility may sit if damage occurs.
Good mining and minerals information forms an important part of that due-diligence picture. Where complex legal, geological or structural issues surface, specialist advice remains essential.
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This article was submitted by PinPoint Information as part of an advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the advertiser and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.
