Everything, from the antique to the modern

As a professional middle-aged solicitor (conveyancing division), I have many reasons to look at land registration as some form of cruel and unusual punishment. Let us be honest, who has not gazed upon a practice guide (pick your favourite tautology) and lost the will to carry on. I was therefore slightly nervous when asked to review the fourth edition of Ash Jones’ Land Registration Manual and assumed it was some sort of aversion therapy.  

Well, no. Much to my delight (again, conveyancing division), this book has actually built my confidence in some of the more esoteric areas of the art of getting your clients’ information on paper, in the correct fashion, at HMLR HQ. It is readable, navigable and has taught me something about the Leasehold Reform Act, about accretion and diluvion, and about Crown foreshore (not necessarily on my patch, in the industrial heartlands of West Yorkshire, although we are allegedly tidal as far in as Castleford). 

Giving details of what information must be included in transactional documents, and how to approach registration, this sizeable book has everything from the antique to the truly modern. While it has a reasonably hefty ticket price, I would have paid for it. And I will be keeping this one next to my conveyancing handbook, book on covenants, legal dictionary and something remarkably witty on the Building Safety Act. 

It is not about how to fill the forms in – it is about how to do your job in a way that means that your clients can be protected. 

Anna Newport is a solicitor and director at Newport Land and Law Ltd, Wakefield