Land contract information to be made public from April 2027

Further to the outcome of its earlier consultation — see Contractual controls on land consultation: Have your say — Burges Salmon, the Government has published draft regulations and guidance for the mandatory disclosure to the Land Registry (HMLR) of details about contractual rights granted in future over land in England & Wales.  The Provision of Information (Contractual Control) (Registered Land) Regulations 2026 await Parliamentary approval and the expected commencement date is 6 April 2027. The rules as drafted are outlined below:

Who is affected?

Typically, developers and promoters of land for residential or mixed-use development and their legal advisers.  

What is to be disclosed? 

• the identity of the grantor and grantee, the type of contractual control, exercise conditions, duration (including any permitted extensions or right to terminate), and the title number, address, and postcode of the affected land,  
• the termination, expiry, or exercise of the right (in whole or in part) must also be reported to HMLR.

The registrar will publish all reported information in a publicly available dataset from 6 April 2028, updated at least monthly.

By whom & by when?

• the party with the benefit of the right — rather than the landowner who granted it — must disclose it, normally by engaging a solicitor or other conveyancer to complete the process
• within 60 days of it being granted, varied or assigned
• or alongside any application to register a notice or restriction protecting the rights at HMLR.

Once the regulations have been made, any agreements within scope which are entered into from that date to when the regulations come into force on (probably) 6 April 2027 will have to supply the required information before 6 October 2027. This is a change from the consultation which proposed that the rules should apply retrospectively to agreements entered into after 6 April 2021.

Which contracts are affected?

• options and conditional contracts to acquire a freehold or leasehold property or a new lease (leases with a term of less than 15 years unexpired are exempt)
• rights of pre-emption (first refusal) for such acquisition, and
• rights to direct the transfer or lease to a third party.

Exceptions

• national security or defence contracts
• rights incidental to lending security — eg banks' step-in rights under facility agreements
• contracts which do not concern the future development of dwellings or where the floorspace to be created is less than 100 square metres
• rights expiring within 18 months, including any extension period
• rights necessary to protect overage payable to a previous owner of the land
• s.106 rights exclusively relating to infrastructure, amenities or services.

Enforcement 

Unless the mandatory information is provided, HMLR will not register a notice or restriction to protect the contract, so subsequent buyers or tenants of the land affected may be able to avoid the interest granted. In addition, non-compliance or knowingly or recklessly providing false or misleading information, constitutes an offence under section 225 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 — with potential fines on conviction and, in the worst case, a maximum prison term of 2 years.

We will be reflecting on the implications of the draft regulations and if you would like any further information or advice, please get in touch with your usual Burges Salmon real estate contact.

This article was written by Rose-Anna Higgins.

The Regulations introduce a duty to provide information about rights contained in certain land agreements ......... to HM Land Registry, where those agreements give a person the power to control how land is used or developed. The aim is to improve transparency over who holds control over land, short of legal ownership.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/contractual-control-agreements/contractual-control-agreements