Since registration became compulsory, the proof that somebody owns a house is the register of title, not a bundle of paper deeds. Under section 67 of the Land Registration Act 2002 an official copy of the register is admissible in evidence to the same extent as the original. That is the document a solicitor, a lender, a court or an executor is asking for when they ask for "proof of ownership" or "the title deeds".
An official copy is not a download
GOV.UK sells a £7 download of the register for anyone who signs in, and says on the same page that "you cannot use them as proof of ownership" and that official copies "cannot be downloaded online" there. The official copy is the same register, issued by HM Land Registry with the date and time it shows the entries at. That is what Homeproof buys for you, through HM Land Registry's Business Gateway, and seals into your certificate so that the copy and the date it was taken are kept together.
When people need it
- Selling or remortgaging, when the other side's solicitor asks for up-to-date official copies.
- After a death, to show what the person owned.
- In a dispute with a neighbour, a tenant or a lender, where the register's entries are the starting point.
- To check your own entry: that the names, the address for service and the mortgage are right, and that nothing has been registered against the property that you do not recognise. HM Land Registry's free Property Alert service emails you when something is lodged against a title you watch; it is free, and worth having.
What the check shows
The title register, read into your certificate and explained, with the official copy itself to download from the certificate. For a flat, the register of the leasehold title is the one that shows the leaseholder.