HM Land Registry have recently updated one of their Practice Guides.
Practice Guide 25 provides conveyancers with advice on compulsory and voluntary registration elements of leasehold estates in land. The guide specifically refers to both the Land Registration Act 2002 as well as the Land Registration Rules 2003, advising on how to apply the legislation.
Section 4 of the guide covers leases which cannot be registered, providing details of the leaseholds in land which cannot be lodged for this purpose. Subsection 4.3 references leases with no certain start date and is also the subject of the most recent update. Amended to reflect the current practice of HM Land Registry, section 4.3 of the guide now states:
“If the lease is silent as to the commencement date, we will normally assume (in the absence of other evidence) the term commences on the date of the lease.”
