Our August 2022 summary of the latest developments in Property law and practice is as follows:

The Register of Overseas Entities came into force on 1 August 2022 in line with the measures set out in Part 1 of the new Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022. The Register is held by Companies House and requires overseas entities that own land or property in the UK to declare their beneficial owners and/or managing officers. There will be severe sanctions for those who do not comply, including restrictions on buying, selling, transferring, leasing or charging their land or property in the UK.

The Register is a digital service and all documentation must be submitted and delivered electronically. It is a public register but will allow individuals to protect their information from public disclosure under certain circumstances.

To summarise, the Act requires any Overseas Entity (essentially, a non-UK company or other body) which:

• already owns a freehold or leasehold estate of more than seven years (acquired at any time since 1 January 1999);
• wishes to acquire a freehold or leasehold estate of more than seven years; or
• wishes to dispose of (or has, since 28 February 2022, disposed of) a freehold or leasehold estate of more than seven years (e.g. by selling, assigning, surrendering, granting a lease of more than seven years or granting a charge)

to register details of its “beneficial owners” on the newly established Register of Overseas Entities (and to then keep that Register updated).

The Act introduces a transitional period of six months from the date the relevant provisions came into force (1 August 2022) (“the Transitional Period”) to give Overseas Entities the opportunity to comply with the registration requirements with respect to existing property ownership.

The land registration provisions of the legislation will come into force on 5 September 2022 and the Land Registry will start adding restrictions to all registered qualifying estates where an Overseas Entity became the registered proprietor pursuant to an application made on or after 1 January 1999. The restriction will prevent the Overseas Entity from disposing of its property (which includes creating a charge over such property) after the end of the Transitional Period, unless at the time of the disposition the entity is a registered Overseas Entity, the entity is exempt, or one of the limited exceptions in the legislation applies (which are currently unknown).

Buyers of relevant land should also be wary of this new legislation as it also prevents any application from being made to register an Overseas Entity as the new proprietor of a qualifying estate unless the entity is a registered overseas entity or exempt. The Transitional Period does not apply to registration of new owner, however, and so any non-exempt Overseas Entity that acquires a qualifying estate in England and Wales from 5 September 2022 must be registered on the Register of Overseas Entities.

The Building Safety Act received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022. There is still work to do before the Building Safety Act is fully implemented, but the Act is a significant piece of legislation aimed to bring into law the regulatory changes for building regulation and control of higher risk buildings in England.

Amongst other things, the Act will provide new accountability and duties and strengthen the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, as well as introduce competency standards and provisions to strengthen the construction products regulations.

The Building Safety Act defines higher-risk buildings during construction as buildings in England which are at least 18 metres or have at least 7 storeys and are of a description set out in secondary legislation. Buildings in scope are those containing at least two residential units, and hospitals or care homes during the construction phase. Residential units are dwellings or any other unit of temporary accommodation. However, the Government is currently consulting on the categorisation of buildings as higher risk buildings and further buildings could be added.

Those involved in higher-risk buildings will need to understand the requirements of the new regulatory regime, but employers, contractors and consultants will also need to prepare for the new duties and competencies that will apply across all projects in England.

Various provisions have already come into force (as of 28 June 2022) in accordance with s170 BSA 2022.

HM Revenue & Customs is consulting on new draft regulations (The Stamp Duty Land Tax (Service of Documents) Regulations 2022) which are intended to documents relating to SDLT to be served on a company at its registered address and the address provided on the SDLT return form.

Those regulations will enable HMRC to properly serve SDLT documents on a company at its principal place of business (as currently) or its registered office address or the address provided on the SDLT1. The consultation runs until 22 July 2022, but early commentary has flagged that the option of different service addresses could create confusion. For example, the taxpayer company will not know which address will be used. The likely assumption is that HMRC will use the address listed on the SDLT1 form but suggestions have been made for HMRC to ensure the SDLT1 form is updated to be clear on this.