Form LL Restriction - Protect your land and property from fraud
What is a Form LL restriction?
A Form LL restriction is registered on the title at the Land Registry to combat fraud. Whilst it isn't a mandatory requirement or part of the conveyancing process when you buy a property, having it in place could stop a fraudster from selling your property without you knowing.
What you often don't know is the process you need to follow when you come to remortgage, or sell your property, because the restriction will stop you from doing just that. We'll explain below what you need to do if you have a Form LL restriction and need to remortgage or sell your home, as well as what happens during that meeting.
What is the Form LL Restriction wording?
The Form LL Restriction wording is:"No disposition of the registered estate by the proprietor of the registered estate is to be registered without a certificate signed by a conveyancer that the conveyancer is satisfied that the person who executed the document submitted for registration as disponor is the same person as the proprietor"
In plain English:"You can't sell, remortgage, or change the names on your property at the Land Registry without a conveyancer being 100% sure the people signing the document to change the title are the same people as those named on the document being submitted to the Land Registry" . It is a face-to-face ID check against your passport or diving licence alongside the transaction documents.
Your ID
Verified
for Form LL
By Andrew Boast, CEO of SAM Conveyancing
The restriction forces the legal owners to have their ID verified in front of a solicitor and to confirm the names of the people undertaking the transaction are those in front of them. This can be done in a face-to-face meeting at a solicitor's office or via a video conference call, such as Zoom, Skype, or Teams. If the solicitor is satisfied, they issue a Certificate of Compliance containing prescribed wording, allowing the solicitor to complete the transaction.
The Form LL verification isn't advice about the transaction. It is an independent solicitor verifying ID to the transaction and title documents.
If you have a restriction you no longer need or want, read our article: How to Remove Restriction on Property, next.
Why do people get a Form LL restriction?
It is used as an anti-fraud restriction, ensuring that the ID of the registered owner is verified in the presence of a solicitor whenever you sell or remortgage the property. The restriction prevents the solicitor from completing the transaction until they or another solicitor has completed the anti-fraud check.
The risk of someone other than the legal owners selling or remortgaging your property is removed. For example, John and Mary own a buy-to-let property. Their tenants receive John and Mary's post and use this to impersonate them. Their tenants find a buyer, instruct a solicitor and provide ID documents to the solicitor. With only online checks, the solicitor may be duped into believing the tenants are John and Mary.
In the end, the tenants sell the property, and John and Mary are the victims of fraud. Had the Land Registry's anti-fraud restriction been in place, the tenants wouldn't have been able to sell the property, as they would not have been able to pass the face-to-face ID check.
Need a Form LL Restriction verified or removed by a Solicitor?
Fed up with solicitors who can't help? We can verify your identity to comply with a form LL restriction or apply or remove the restriction at the Land Registry. Upload your documents using our simple form to get started now, or contact us to ask a question.
What happens during your meeting with your solicitor?
Verifying ID for Restriction Process | Removing Restriction Process |
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A disposition is the transfer of an interest. An interest can mean a legal or beneficial interest in a property. Dispositions include, but are not limited to:
- Selling the property
- Transferring all or some of the property to a new owner
- Making a non-legal owner a beneficial owner of a share in the property
- Mortgaging the property
- Grant or reservation of an easement
- A rentcharge, or right of entry annexed to a rentcharge
Restrictions that include the term 'no disposition of the registered estate by a proprietor' stop the proprietor from transferring an interest in the property, usually until or unless they have met some other criteria. In the case of a Form LL Land Registry restriction, the proprietor must get a certificate from a conveyancer to confirm that they are, in fact, the proprietor they claim to be.
Disponor means the person who transfers or conveys a property to another. For example, if I own a property and sell it to you, then I am the disponor and you are the disponee.
Andrew started his career in 2000 working within conveyancing solicitor firms and grew hands-on knowledge of a wide variety of conveyancing challenges and solutions. After helping in excess of 50,000 clients in his career, he uses all this experience within his article writing for SAM, mainstream media and his self published book How to Buy a House Without Killing Anyone.
Caragh is an excellent writer and copy editor of books, news articles and editorials. She has written extensively for SAM for a variety of conveyancing, survey, property law and mortgage-related articles.
