The update to the service will help to speed up the process for removing default Form A restrictions which protect multiple owners’ interests in a property. Find full details of what these restrictions are, what they do, and the circumstances under which we enter them in section 2 of Practice guide 24: private trusts of land.
When customers lodge documents via the portal, they need to tell us the type of registration they are performing, such as registering a new lease or submitting a document to support an application. Customers will now see a new option ‘Removal of default Form A restriction (JP1)’ in the ‘types of registration’ list. When customers use this option to remove a default Form A restriction we can remove the restriction much quicker. This is one of the ways customers can help us improve our overall speed of service.
Form A restrictions are entered in the register when a customer lodges an application where more than one person or company, or a person and a company, is being registered as the owner of a registered estate; and the customer has not given us evidence to support how the joint owners will hold the land or property.
When the Form A restriction is entered in the register, we send the customer an automated stock letter to inform them we have done this. If the customer returns this stock letter to us we can remove the restriction immediately if they send it within 30 days and we have not received an intervening application for the same title.
To return our stock letter via the portal and remove the restriction quicker, customers can simply ‘check’ the new radio button in e-DRS, enter the ‘LR reference’ we provide in our stock letter and upload the document.
In May 2017, we added ‘JP Cancellation of Default Form A restriction’ to the drop-down ‘document type’ list within e-DRS. We have now removed this option from the list and changed it to a radio button because customers told us they often overlooked the option on the drop-down list.
