Real Estate Bulletin – July 2022

The Register of Overseas Entities – important developments

Recap

The requirement for the Registrar of Companies to maintain the Register of Overseas Entities (the Register) is created by section 3 of the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 (the Act).

Any overseas entity that owns or intends to buy UK property will have to take reasonable steps to identify its "registrable beneficial owners" and submit details to Companies House to put on the Register.

New land registration requirements will see restrictions being placed on freehold and leasehold titles owned by overseas entities. These will stop transactions being registered where an overseas entity is in breach of the new rules. Overseas entities will need to be on the Register in order to make an application to become the registered proprietor of a freehold or leasehold estate.

Certain transitional provisions are in place in relation to transactions which take place during the first six months of the Register being operational.

Failure to comply can lead to criminal and financial penalties for overseas entities and their officers.

Register to go live on 1 August 2022

Companies House announced in a recent blog post (view here): "We expect the commencement order to be laid on 1 August 2022, and our intention is that the register will come into effect on the same date." A similar announcement was made by HM Land Registry (view here).

Companies House and the Land Registry have also announced that the land registration elements of the Act are expected to come into force on 5 September 2022, noting that “this will allow time for those currently engaged in a relevant land transaction to comply with the requirement to register with Companies House and obtain an Overseas Entity ID number before making an application to the land registry”.

This is good news for buyers of UK property who are overseas entities, who will now have a slightly longer period in which to obtain their Overseas Entity ID numbers before they are required to use them to apply to become a registered proprietor of a freehold or leasehold estate at the Land Registry.

In this article we look in more detail at three recent statutory instruments containing important provisions in relation to the operation of the Register.

Companies House and the Land Registry have issued further guidance and useful advice in relation to the register including:

Land Registry: Register of Overseas Entities: How it affects land transactions

Companies House: Register an overseas entity and tell us about its beneficial owners

July 2022 Building Safety update

In the July update we look at an English court judgment on key fire safety issues, and at a government consultation on secondary legislation to support the Building Safety Act.

You can read the update here.

Court orders UK Government to revise net zero target policies report

On 18 July 2022, the Court allowed environmental campaign groups’ judicial review challenge of the government’s strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

You can read more about this here.