Land Registry to Increase Fees

The department for land registry in England and Wales – Land Registry – intends to increase its fees. The increases will come into effect on June, 6th 2009. The increase in registering fees can be explained by lower levels of transactions on the property market, which fact has a negative influence on the income of Land Registry. The department is totally dependent on its fee income to cover its costs and thus has been severely affected by the decay of UK property market. The fees will be increased as follows: property worth £100,000 or less registration would cost £130 compared to £100 earlier. Registry of a property worth £1 million would now cost £550 instead of £420. Fees for provision of information, such as official searches and official copies, would also increase. For instance, a postal official search would cost £8. Land Registry representative said the department has already taken measures to cut costs, which include voluntary redundancy and office merges. He also claimed that these measures helped keep fee increases as small as possible. He also said that fee increases are rare with Land Registry: ever since 1993, 8 out of 9 fee orders reduced fees.