Complaints procedure

We are committed to delivering excellent services to our customers. We’ll be accountable when things go wrong and will take steps to put things right wherever we can.

How to make a complaint

Complete our online complaint form or if you prefer you can telephone us. Read about how to make a complaint.

What to expect

Our complaints procedure has two stages.

Stage 1

On receipt of your complaint:

  • we’ll acknowledge your complaint and aim to give you a full response within 20 working days, but if the issue is complex and we need more time to investigate your concerns, we’ll contact you and let you know
  • we’ll keep you informed throughout our investigation
  • we’ll tell you the outcome and clearly explain our decision
  • if we’ve fallen below our service standards we’ll apologise and put things right as quickly as possible
  • if we’ve made an error, we’ll explain what’s happened and fix it as quickly as possible if we can

We value complaints and we’ll use the information you give us to help us improve our service.

Stage 2

If you remain unhappy with the outcome of our investigation, you can ask us to look at your complaint again and it will be reviewed by a senior member of our specialist team. We’ll contact you again within 20 working days if we need more information or to let you know if it’s going to take longer to resolve your complaint.

If you are still not satisfied

If your complaint has been through both stages of our internal complaints procedure and you’re still not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint or the way in which it was handled, you can complain to one of the independent bodies below.  

Independent Complaints Reviewer

The Independent Complaints Reviewer (ICR) for HM Land Registry. The ICR’s role is to review complaints independently from HM Land Registry.

The ICR will only consider complaints about:

The ICR has no power to review or overturn any of our decisions about land registration issues, or to comment on points of law.

If you’re not satisfied with the ICR investigation outcome, you can ask your MP to refer the complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

Information Commissioner’s Office

Additionally, you may be able to escalate to the Information Commissioner’s Office which is the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.

Judicial review

If you wish to challenge a land registration decision, you might be able to go to court to ask for a judicial review of the way the decision was made.

Judicial review is a type of court proceedings in which a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public body.

If your grievance cannot be resolved through our complaints procedure and you are considering court action, you should think about:

  • getting independent legal advice before starting proceedings
  • reading the Civil Procedure Rules for guidance

Judicial review proceedings should be issued against and served on the Chief Land Registrar.

Local Land Charges complaints procedure

HM Land Registry is in the process of taking statutory responsibility for the Local Land Charges Register. You can check if HM Land Registry has responsibility for your local authority.

We will not be able to consider complaints about documents relating to charges that have been provided by local authorities, as they retain responsibility for them. Also, CON 29 enquiries and complaints are outside of the scope of the Local Land Charges Register maintained by HM Land Registry.

If your complaint is about any of these matters or about local land charges in an area that is not yet HM Land Registry’s responsibility, you should contact the relevant local authority.

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