How to Find Out Who Owns a Property

There is one definitive route to the owner of a property in England or Wales: the title register, £7 per document from HM Land Registry on GOV.UK, which names the registered proprietor, the tenure and any mortgage. Enter a postcode and this page tells you which register applies for that nation and what it costs, and shows the tenure recorded on sales at the postcode. It does not show, store or guess any owner's name.

No signup. Tells you which official register names the proprietor for this nation and what it costs, and shows the tenure recorded on sales at the postcode. This check does not look up, store or show any owner's name.

This check runs on screen, no signup. The full property report is £9.99 Lite / £24.99 Complete — one report, one price, no subscription.

How to find the registered owner of a property

  1. Open the GOV.UK land and property information service and search by address. The free search tells you whether the address is registered and shows its title number and tenure.
  2. Buy the title register for £7. It names the registered proprietor, with an address for service, and shows the tenure, any registered mortgage, and restrictions and covenants on the land. See the step-by-step guide and how to find the title number.
  3. For a flat, buy the leasehold title for the flat to find the leaseholder and the freehold title for the building to find the freeholder; a block has one of each.
  4. If the proprietor is a company, look it up on Companies House at no charge for its status, officers, charges and accounts.
  5. Download the title plan (another £7) if the boundary matters, for example for land next to the house.

HouseCheckup is independent of HM Land Registry; the £7 document is bought from the government, not from us.

What the title register shows, and what it does not

The register has three parts. The property register describes the land, its tenure and, for a lease, the lease date and term. The proprietorship register names the owner and, since April 2000, usually the price paid. The charges register lists mortgages, restrictive covenants and other burdens. What it does not show: the owner's phone number or email, planning history, the condition of the building, or anything about the land around it. For those, see what the title documents contain and the land registry search guide.

Companies, overseas entities and trusts

A property held by a UK company shows the company's name and registered number on the title; the company's own record at Companies House then tells you whether it is active, dissolved or in liquidation, who its officers are and what charges it has given. A property held by an overseas company must, since 2023, appear on the Register of Overseas Entities with its beneficial owners declared. A property held on trust names the trustees as proprietors, not the beneficiaries, so the register will not tell you who ultimately benefits. HM Land Registry also publishes bulk datasets of company-owned and overseas-owned titles; their licence restricts use by address and direct marketing, which is why this page does not search them and why no private owner's name appears in any HouseCheckup result.

Owner, freeholder or leaseholder?

For a leasehold flat, "the owner" can mean two different people: the leaseholder who lives there (or lets it) and the freeholder who owns the building. The sale records this page reads tell you which tenure applies at the postcode; the freehold or leasehold checker goes further on that question, and the service charge dispute check shows whether the building has been to the tribunal.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

In Scotland titles are held by Registers of Scotland and searched on ScotLIS, where the title sheet names the proprietor for a small fee. In Northern Ireland they are held by Land & Property Services and searched through LandWeb Direct. For a Scottish or Northern Irish postcode the check above names the right register and fee instead of an English one.

What the Complete report prints about ownership

The Complete report (£24.99, one-off) is not a title register and never names a private owner. It has a section titled Corporate ownership and building records: dated corporate-title, company-status and building-register evidence, printed only where an exact link to the address has been reviewed, each entry with its facts, its match basis and a link to the source record, and a plain statement when a source was not checked or does not cover the nation. Where the records exist for the address it also prints the tenure recorded on the last sale, the full sale history for the street, the flood and ground screen, the EPC, planning and heritage labels and the area picture, and it names every check it could not run. Read the illustrative sample to see the format, or the pre-offer check for where ownership fits among the other questions to settle before you offer.

Frequently asked questions

In England and Wales you cannot: the registered proprietor is published only on the title register, which HM Land Registry sells for £7 per document on GOV.UK. What is open at no charge is the sale history (price, date and tenure, since 1995), which this page shows for the postcode, and company records at Companies House once you know a company's name. In Scotland the title sheet is on ScotLIS for a small fee.
The registered proprietor's name and address for service; whether the title is freehold or leasehold, and for a lease its date and term; the price paid where the sale was registered after April 2000; registered charges such as a mortgage; and restrictions, covenants and rights that affect the land. It does not show the owner's contact details beyond the address for service, and it does not show planning history or the condition of the building.
The title register names the proprietor; a company appears with its registered number, which you can look up on Companies House at no charge to see its status, officers and filings. An overseas company that owns property in England and Wales must also be on the Register of Overseas Entities. HM Land Registry publishes datasets of company-owned and overseas-owned titles under a licence that restricts use by address, so this page does not search them.
No. The Complete report (£24.99) is not a title register and never names a private owner. Its Corporate ownership and building records section prints dated corporate-title, company-status and building-register evidence only where an exact link to the address has been reviewed, each with its match basis and a link to the source record, and says plainly when no record was checked. Where the records exist for the address it also carries the tenure recorded on the last sale, the street's sale history and the hazard, energy, planning and area checks.
Around one in seven titles in England and Wales is still unregistered, usually land that has not changed hands since compulsory registration reached the area. HM Land Registry's index map search (form SIM) tells you whether an address is registered; if it is not, the deeds are held by the owner or their lender, and your conveyancer can serve notices or search the Land Charges register.
Buy the title register for £7 and write to the proprietor at the address for service. If it is a company, check its status on Companies House; a dissolved company's property can pass to the Crown as bona vacantia. If the land is unregistered, ask the council's empty-homes officer, who can usually trace the owner through council tax records that are not public.

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