Further Information about Land Registration

Each unit of registered common land is given its own number which is prefixed by the letters ‘CL’. It will also have its own register sheets comprising three sections:

Part 1: the land section. This has two columns, the first gives a number for the entry and the dateon which that entry was made. The second column describes the land (its name, acreage and parish in which it is located), reference to the register map (sheet number) and registration particulars (application number and name and address of applicant).

Part 2: the rights section. This sets out the nature and extent of the rights of common registered over the land. There are currently five columns; the first two give the number and date of the entry and of the application respectively. The third column gives the name, address and legal capacity of the applicant, for example, tenant or owner. The fourth column provides details on the rights of common and the land over which they are exercisable (see Interpretation of Commons Registers for further information on the rights column). The fifth column provides details of the land to which the rights are attached; this will usually consist of a farm name, parish and Ordnance Survey field numbers or a supplemental map showing the boundaries of the dominant tenement. If rights are held in gross this will be stipulated in the fifth column. There may be a cross reference to an entry in another register unit or another entry in the same register.

The 2006 Act introduced provisions for voluntary declarations of entitlement, whereby new owners of a dominant tenement whose details are not recorded in the register can submit a declaration of their entitlement to the rights of common attached to the land to the Commons Registration Officer. These declarations will be recorded in a new sixth column, refer to Updating the registers). Note that declarations of entitlement can only be made in areas where Part 1 of the Act has commenced roll out, refer to the Defra website for more information on the timing of the national roll out.

Part 3: the ownership section. This provides details of any registered owner(s) of the land unless title to the land has been registered with the Land Registry. If this has happened or happens then the entries in the ownership section should have been replaced with the relevant title number, and information about ownership must be obtained from the Land Registry. In some cases the register will not have been updated and a landowner will be recorded in the commons register even though the land has been registered at the Land Registry. The ownership section consists of four columns; the first two give the number and date of entry and application respectively. The third provides the name and address of the person registered as the owner and the fourth column gives particulars of the land to which the entry applies. There will frequently be a number of owners listed, their ownership appertaining to different areas of the common. Registration as the owner of a common is not conclusive evidence of ownership although the longer such ownership is unchallenged then the more difficult it would be to make an opposing claim.

Registers must be available to the public for inspection and copies and extracts may be taken. Official copies are admissible as evidence in court. A fee will usually be charged for the provision of copies. The 2006 Act allows for regulations to be made which will permit or require registration authorities to maintain all or part of their register in an electronic form. These provisions have not commenced at the time of publication (April 2010).

It should be recognised that registers are not current or live records. They record the situation at a given point in time, usually registration of the common although there are often more recent amendments. Their practical use in the management of rights is therefore limited. For example, rights are invariably shown as being attached to the farm or dwelling to which they were appurtenant at the time of registration. Since then the land may have been split and sold to different parties, or amalgamated, for purposes of management, with other land in the vicinity. The register is unlikely to record these subsequent transactions and, consequently, following the history of ownership of a right through a commons register can be very difficult. The intention of Part 1 of the Commons Act 2006 is to allow the registers to be brought up to date.