HM Land Registry announces first-in-a-decade fee increase for information services

A vital tool for best practice

Propertymark encourages agents to verify property details with HMLR as best practice, as many of our members have reported that information provided by landlords or homeowners can be inaccurate or incomplete.

The new charges will mean that, for digital services:

• Inspection of an individual register or plan will increase from £3 to £7
• Official copy of an individual register or plan will increase from £3 to £7
• Registration, cancellation or rectification of an entry per name (Agricultural Credits Service or application) will increase from £1 to £5

Land Charges applications submitted on paper will increase by £6 for searches and £5 for official copies and inspections.

HMLR states that the higher fees reflect the costs of running and improving their services, plus increasing digitisation and transformation of data.

Longer-term change to the charging model

This latest decision to raise fees does not affect the longer-term review of HMLR’s charging structure which has not been significantly changed since 1862. 

Propertymark responded to the consultation issued in March 2024 and supported the principles of increasing access to information, modernising the fees, and ensuring they are fair and reasonable. HMLR are expected to publish their response to the consultation in the autumn.

Ensuring cost-effective services

Following the introduction of Material Information parts B and C, property agents need to use HMLR services more often to check more complex information that sellers provide.

Paying for each property search, title register, and title plan is expensive for many agents, and they are not always able to recoup this cost through their fees, which can discourage them from carrying out checks on information provided by a seller.

This is vitally important to resolve as it can create detriment for buyers as well as leave agents open to liability if details, such as the length of a lease, are not accurate. Either a subscription model or the ability to pay in advance for some checks at a lower cost would make the services more appealing to agents, as this could be more easily factored into their costs.