First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber)

Stephen Andrew Smith v Philip Cockburn (Alteration and rectification of the register : Alteration affecting the title of land in the possession of a registered proprietor) [2019] UKFTT 445 (PC) (03 June 2019)

[2019] UKFTT 445 (PC). Application to alter the register, alleging that the Applicant did not sign a transfer of 3 titles to the registered proprietor and seeking the reinstatement of the Applicant as proprietor on the register. The registered proprietor had executed a transfer of the 3 titles to the Respondent but the transfer had not been registered. HELD that the registered proprietor had dishonestly altered a TR1 signed by the Applicant by adding three title numbers to it. The TR1 was void. The Applicant's right to rectify the register was not an overriding interest at the time of the transfer to the Respondent because the Applicant was not then in actual occupation and even if he had been, the state of the property in the titles was so chaotic that reasonably careful inspection would not have revealed that he was in occupation. The register was not rectified because the Respondent as a person entitled to be registered as proprietor was entitled to be treated as registered proprietor in possession for the purposes of Schedule 4 paragraph 6 and the conditions of paragraph 6(2) were not met. Consideration of what exceptional circumstances would have justified not altering the register if the Respondent had not been entitled to rely on paragraph 6.

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