The Provision of Information (Contractual Control) (Registered Land) Regulations 2026 (‘the Regulations’) have been made under the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023. The Regulations follow the implementation in Scotland of a similar Register of Controlling Interests and subsequent Government consultation in respect of England & Wales during 2024.
The Regulations come into force on 6 April 2027 but any agreement made after the date the Regulations are made (8 June 2026) will become registrable and must be registered by 6 October 2027.
Action Needed: Clients and advisers now need to begin keeping records of applicable contracts for later registration.
The 2023 Act and Regulations provide for the creation of a statutory register of contractual control agreements to be administered by the Land Registry. The Regulations require that the conveyancer acting for any party taking the benefit under a relevant contract must register the contract. The mechanism for registering such contract with the Land Registry is awaited.
A registrable agreement is any contract or assignment or variation of such contract:
- relating to registered land;
- under which one party can direct the disposition of the legal estate by the proprietor (e.g. option agreements, conditional contracts, pre-emption rights, promotion agreements);
- lasting more than 18 months (taking into account any right to renew or extend in the contract);
- requiring any transfer of either the legal estate or a grant of a lease for a term of 15 years or more;
Certain agreements are exempted from registration:
- Relating to national security or defence;
- Rights related to loans, financial instruments or contractual obligations to pay consideration to former owners (e.g. overage or clawback);
- Rights granted for non-development purposes (ie relating to the provision of only one dwelling, house or a building with 100m2 or more floor area);
- Where the total period of control is less than 18 months;
- Agreements under s106 Town & Country Planning Act 1990.
The registration must be filed within 60 days of the relevant event (grant, assignment, variation or termination of the contractual control). The Regulations require specific information to be filed as follows:
- the full names of the grantor and the grantee;
- where the grantor or grantee is a body corporate, partnership or other legal person, an official unique reference or registration number for that grantor or grantee, or any other registration number or other sufficient details that enable that grantor or grantee to be uniquely identified;
- where the grantor is an individual, their date and place of birth;
- the type of the contractual control right;
- the date, parties, and title or other description of the contract creating or conferring the right;
- Where a contract is contingent, the date from which the contractual control right can be exercised, or detail of the relevant conditions;
- details of the initial period of control and of any provisions to extend it under the contract and any entitlement for either party to terminate it;
- the title number of the affected estate and, where only part of the land registered under that title number is subject to the right, sufficient details to identify the part of the land affected;
- the address and the postcode (if applicable) of the land subject to the right;
- details of whether the land subject to the right includes land (including airspace) held apart from the surface.
The full agreement or financial details contained in it will not be available, but the register will clearly disclose the existence of the contract, the parties and other key terms. The Land Registry will not enter a notice or restriction onto the title of a qualifying title unless a filing has been made however and so developers and their solicitors will need to comply in order to secure agreements appropriately. There are also criminal sanctions for knowingly or recklessly providing false or misleading information or otherwise failing to comply with the Regulations.
As noted above, agreements made after the date the Regulations are made will be registrable and so solicitors and clients will need to begin identifying and recording applicable contracts now and apply for registration once the Regulations are brought into force within the specified 60-day period.