One of our real estate experts explains the new register introduced for overseas owners of UK property.
The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 received royal assent on 15 March 2022, meaning that all overseas legal entities that own (or wish to buy) UK property must register with Companies House. The register was introduced on 1 August 2022 to create transparency of ownership and act as a deterrent for those hiding profits of crime in the beneficial ownership of UK property.
How to comply
Any legal entity governed by the law of a country or territory outside the UK is regarded as an overseas entity, including Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Overseas entities must take reasonable steps to identify their beneficial owner(s) i.e. any individual, legal entity or government or public authority holding more than 25% of the shares or voting rights in that entity (or satisfying certain other ownership tests). The register follows the “people with significant control” register for UK companies.
As part of registration, details of the name, country of incorporation, legal form and registered office and correspondence addresses for the overseas entity will need to be provided, as well as details of any beneficial owners and the UK-regulated agent that verified the identity of those beneficial owners.
Upon registration, the overseas entity will be given an identification number and it is then their duty to ensure that the register is updated on an annual basis.
Are there any exemptions?
Registration is not required if the overseas entity became the registered owner of the property in England and Wales before 1 January 1999. Under the act, the secretary of state can exempt an individual from the registration procedure by written notice. This must be for the purpose of national security or the prevention or detection of serious crime. If an overseas entity does not own UK property or plan on owning property, it does not need to register.
What happens if an overseas entity does not register with the ROE?
The identification number issued by the registrar of companies will need to be submitted when registering an overseas entity as the owner of UK property, otherwise the application will be rejected by HM Land Registry. A restriction will also be placed on the title to the property following the purchase, which will prevent the registration of any future disposal of the property unless the overseas entity is registered at Companies House at the time.
Disposing of property between 28 February 2022 and 1 February 2023 without registering with the ROE will be a criminal offence and the overseas entity and its officers could be liable for daily fines of up to £2,500 and prison sentences of up to five years.
In the case of overseas entities that are already owners of UK property, they must register at Companies House no later than 1 February 2023. HM Land Registry will also add a restriction to the titles of all such property to prevent the overseas entity from dealing with that property if they do not have an identification number.
Should you need any advice on this matter, please get in touch with our real estate team. We’d be happy to help.
Acting for local, national and global clients, our Legal 500 and Chambers-rated real estate team has outstanding technical expertise to advise on a huge range of property transactions and non-contentious construction issues.
Disclaimer: All legal information is correct at the time of publication but please be aware that laws may change over time. This article contains general legal information but should not be relied upon as legal advice. Please seek professional legal advice about your specific situation - contact us; we’d be delighted to help.
We previously reported on the new Charities Act 2022. The first wave of provisions in relation to charity land are now in force, with more expected to be in force…
The discovery of failing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in schools just before the beginning of term certainly caught the attention of the public and the media. The problem of…
Our real estate experts explain more about how electronic signatures are now considered legally binding from a property perspective. In our real estate department, we now regularly use a platform…
Our website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through our website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorised as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyse and understand how you use our website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies but it may affect your browsing experience on our website. You can find our cookie policy here.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for our website to function and enable core functionality such as security and accessibility. These cookies do not store any personal information. You can block these cookies by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Cookie
Duration
Description
__cf_bm
30 minutes
This cookie, set by Cloudflare, is used to support Cloudflare Bot Management.
mgref
1 year
This cookie is set by Eventbrite to deliver content tailored to the end user's interests and improve content creation. It is also used for event-booking purposes.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Cookie
Duration
Description
_ga
2 years
The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
_gat
1 minute
This cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic sites.
_gid
1 day
Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
G
1 year
Cookie used to facilitate the translation into the preferred language of the visitor.
vuid
2 years
Vimeo installs this cookie to collect tracking information by setting a unique ID to embed videos to the website.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.