How to Find Out Who Owns a House in the UK (Free & £7 Methods)
Last updated:
Fees verified against GOV.UK on 11 October 2026.
Quick answer
- 1. Free: sign in to the GOV.UK search and read the property summary (address, description, tenure).
- 2. £7: buy the title register, which names the current owner and shows the title number, the price paid, and any mortgage.
- 3. We don't sell owner names. GOV.UK does, for £7, and we link you there.
Step 1 & 2: buying the title register on GOV.UK
Start on the official service: gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry. You need to sign in first (you can create sign-in details there). The free property summary confirms the address, the description and the tenure. To see the owner and the title number, buy the title register (£7). Per GOV.UK, the register usually includes:
- • The title number
- • Who owns the property
- • How much it was last sold for
- • Whether there is a mortgage on it
- • Restrictive covenants and easements affecting the land
Step 3: the free sold-price history
While the owner's name sits behind the £7 register, one thing is free right now: what the property sold for and when. HM Land Registry Price Paid Data records every completed sale since 1995. Search the street's sold prices to see the sale history for the address and its neighbours. No signup.
When the register won't name a person
If the property is owned by a company, the register names the company, so look up its directors on Companies House (free). If the land is unregistered (around 12–15% of England and Wales), there may be no register entry at all. A conveyancer traces ownership through the paper deeds. In Scotland, ownership is held by Registers of Scotland, not HM Land Registry.
Land, a field or a plot with no normal address? The same GOV.UK service searches by location as well as address: find the plot, read the free summary for its tenure, then buy the £7 register for the owner and the title number, and the £7 title plan for the extent. If no title comes up, apply for a search of the index map (form SIM, £8 for up to 5 titles, by post): HM Land Registry replies with the title number or numbers, or confirms the land is unregistered. For unregistered land, trace old deeds or ask the local authority. Company-owned land resolves through Companies House as above; corporate and overseas owners are also published in HM Land Registry's free CCOD and OCOD datasets, explained in our Land Registry search guide.
Once you know who owns it, the next question is what the land and the building carry with them: the planning, drainage, environmental and mining matters that only conveyancing searches answer. The register names the owner; it never tells you whether the house floods.
Looking up the owner because you might buy?
If you're checking ownership because you're thinking of buying (or the house next door to one you're buying), the register answers one question for £7. The £24.99 HouseCheckup Complete report answers the other fifteen: 15+ checks (flood, coal mining, ground stability, radon area class, crime trend, EPC, schools and how the price compares to the street) for the exact address, from official sources.
One-off payment, no subscription. Human-checked and emailed to you.
The £7 register names the owner. It won't tell you what's wrong with the house.
Covenants and title class are only part of due diligence. Flood risk, ground stability, coal mining, radon, EPC and how the asking price compares to the street are all separate records. Enter the address and the £24.99 Complete report runs 15+ checks on that exact property from official sources, in plain English.
Type the full address with its postcode to go straight to your report options. Try .
£24.99 one-off · no subscription · Human-checked and emailed to you. See a sample report · Review report options and coverage
Avoid reseller markups
HM Land Registry warns that “some private companies re-purpose our information and repackage it into bundles”. Customers end up “paying more for information they don't always need.” The owner's name costs £7 direct. Check the ‘gov.uk’ domain; resellers must bury a ‘not affiliated with HM Land Registry’ disclaimer in their footer.
What we can't tell you
We do not display or resell owner names: that's the £7 register on GOV.UK. Our free search shows the sold-price history for an address; our paid report covers the risks and value context around it. Neither is a substitute for the official register or a conveyancer's title check.