Creating a live register for your Common

Step 1: Review and Understand the Official Commons Register 

Each Common Land (CL) Unit has a Register which is maintained by the Commons Registration authority – usually the County Council. The register is often not up to date and remember it is not a register of current owners of the land or the rights but a register of rights registered at the time of Registration from 1968-1971.

The Register comprises three sections:

• The Land 

This includes details of the land in that unit and includes a map which is the definitive map of the CL unit

• The Rights

  This includes a list of all the common rights arranged in order of the date the rights were originally registered following the Commons Registration Act 1965. There are five columns in the register

i. The number in the register

ii. The number of the application

iii. The name of the person who registered the rights – not necessarily the current owner of the rights

iv. The number and type of common rights. All grazing rights have to be quantified i.e. 20 sheep, 5 cattle, 2 ponies. Rights are only convertible from one type to another if the register states so.

v. Any land to which the rights are attached. Some rights are held in gross and are not attached to land

• The Owner of the Land

  This section often is not updated and it is recommended a search of the Land Registry is made to confirm the current owner though be aware land that has not changed hands may not be on the Land Registry.

Another way to ascertain who owns the rights is to make a search of the Land Registry as to who now owns the land detailed in Column v of the Commons Register. Since 28th June 2005 rights cannot be severed from the land to which they are attached for more than two years except in very specific circumstances.

Step 2: Transcribe the Commons Register into a spreadsheet or table

We advise a systematic approach to creating a live register. See below for a template to create a spreadsheet for this. We suggest that the

• first tab is the current official Register

• second tab adds in current owners, tenants with a notes column and include a column as to whether the rights are actively used or not

• third tab is a table of the names and addresses of the active graziers and others with legal rights including the owner, sporting tenants, owners of mineral rights and non-graziers.

Click on the link below to download a template to get you started

Step 3: Update the Register with a request for information, local knowledge, tenancy agreements and data from the Land Registry

We advise that all known commoners, whether active or not, are sent a form to notify the Association of the common rights they own and have available for use via a tenancy or informal arrangement. Here is a template form that can be customised for this purpose. The owner may also be letting grazing so they should be included in the request.

If it is unclear from the register who the current owner of any entry on the register and local enquiries do not reveal the ownership then if the rights are attached, rather than held in gross a search of the Land Registry is advised.