Property Owner Referencing – keeping up to date for a CPO Inquiry

A Compulsory Purchase Order (Order) must include an accurate Schedule of Interests. Government guidance directs that the Order’s confirming Minister has to be satisfied that the statutory procedures have been followed correctly.

The confirming department has to check that no one has been or will be substantially prejudiced due to a defect in the Order, such as the service of additional or amended personal notices.

Complying with this requirement can be challenging because land ownership interests can be complex and do not have a fixed status but rather maintain a fluid state of being.

The impact of this challenge is that the confirming Minister may not confirm an Order if not satisfied that all reasonable and practical steps have been taken to identify ‘Parties’ impacted by a Scheme and are included in the Order.

The solution is to establish a robust process to identify and include all relevant property interests in the Order’s Schedule of Interests.

Introduction

A Compulsory Purchase Order must include a Schedule of Interests comprising:

Details of ‘Parties’ whose interests in land and property are directly impacted;
The Order land plots attributed to each Party;
A description of the land interests to be acquired.

Once Parties are identified, the Acquiring Authority (AA) must follow the CPO guidance processes for liaising with them.

Dalcour Maclaren has been appointed Estates Lead on the Environment Agency (Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme) CPO 2023. This Case Study considers the AA’s ability to demonstrate to an Inspector / Secretary of State that the CPO Schedule of Interests deals with all Parties whose property interests are impacted by the scheme and that the information on the interests is up-to-date.

The Challenge

Land ownership interests can be complex and do not have a fixed status; rather, they maintain a fluid state of being, subject to change (freehold, leasehold, occupation, and rights in land) occurring without notification to the AA. Maintaining an up-to-date record during the scheme’s lifecycle is required so that when a Secretary of State confirms a CPO, all those Parties impacted by the Order can be notified of the ‘Order Confirmation’.

Government guidance on CPOs acknowledges that compulsory purchase proposals will inevitably lead to a period of uncertainty and anxiety for the owners and occupiers of the affected land and that AAs should, therefore, consider:

Providing full information from the outset about what the compulsory purchase process involves, the rights and duties of those affected and an indicative timetable of events; information should be in a format accessible to all those affected;
Appointing a specified case manager during the preparatory stage to whom those with concerns about the proposed acquisition can have easy and direct lines of communication;
Offering to alleviate concerns about future compensation entitlement by entering into agreements about the minimum level of compensation which would be payable if the acquisition goes ahead;
Offering advice and assistance to affected occupiers in respect of any necessary relocation.

It is important to make sure that a compulsory purchase order is made correctly. The confirming Minister has to be satisfied that the statutory procedures have been followed correctly, and means that the confirming department has to check that no one has been or will be substantially prejudiced as a result of a defect in the compulsory purchase order or by a failure to follow the correct procedures, such as the service of additional or amended personal notices.

The Solution

To ensure that all reasonable and practical steps have been taken to identify the Parties impacted, a referencing protocol established the following process to be carried out:

An intersect of all HMLR titles with the most up-to-date NPS polygon layer from HM Land Registry against the Scheme’s CPO boundary is conducted, and ownership data and documents are requested from HM Land Registry.
Statutory information request notices were sent to all identified freeholders, leaseholders, and other parties considered potentially having a property interest.
Additional referencing steps to be undertaken include Trace IQ searches, utility searches, council data searches, site notices for unknown ownerships, and liaising with known owners and occupiers.
Further checks will be undertaken with Companies House, Mutuals Public Register and Charity Commission. Also, check with identified corporations to inquire who should receive formal notices.

Implementation of the Solution

Building a referencing data set to capture a) All impacted property freeholders, b) all of their tenants and occupiers, and c) Third-Party interests (rights & covenants).
Commencing early Scheme owner and occupier liaison to explain the scheme and it’s public interest need, also give opportunity to understand owners concerns and requested mitigations, and enquire as to other Parties having an interest in the property.
Repeating the referencing steps to refresh the data ahead of making up the CPO Schedules of Interests.
Maintaining owner information in our discreet project management data tool ‘Connect’.
From the point of making the CPO, maintaining a ‘Change Log’ to the Order Schedule of Interests, capturing where interests in land change, so that the Secretary of State, when considering the CPO has the most up to date ownership information available.
Ahead of issuing notices of CPO Confirmation to Parties with interests in land, carry out a further land referencing refresh, so that ownership information is as up to date as possible.
Building of a intuitive display ‘dashboard’ to display ownership information for client team review.

Challenges During Implementation

Complexity of managing data for some 300+ property interests and multiple further Third-Party interests, over 1200 CPO plots.
Complexity of managing owner contacts and following up non-responders to information request enquires.
Maintaining the CPO’ Change Log’ audit trail and providing updated versions during and after the Order’s Public Inquiry process.

Outcomes

Identification of owners allowed minor adjustments in the Scheme boundary to avoid impacting unnecessary owners / potential ransom strips.

Our Data Tools Connect held all necessary information required to prepare the CPO Schedule of Interests and Map.

Assurances could be given that the Order Schedule of Interests was complete at the time of making the CPO. A working ownership ‘Change Log’ was created by DM’s Geomatics Referencing Team in collaboration with the Client CPO legal preparation team so that further assertions during the Inquiry could be made that all parties having an interest in the Order land were included in the CPO Schedule of Interests or recorded in the Change Log.

The Change Log is subsequently maintained for CPO Confirmation Notices and the operation of the CPO.

Lessons Learned

Oxford is a city of complex property interests, particularly of third-party interests. Interpretation of significant numbers of registered title Land Charges, many of which are historic, required time and careful interpretation, to ensure all relevant interests were captured in the Order Schedule of Interests.

The seeking of base ‘interest’ ownership information direct from Parties, required persistent and diligent following up with non-responders.

Conclusion

An important challenge for a CPO is to identify that all property interests impacted by the scheme are included in the Order. The confirming Minister has to be satisfied that the statutory procedures in respect to impacted Parties have been complied with.

Identifying land ownership interests can be complex. Interests do not have a fixed status but rather maintain a fluid state of being. Having a process of land referencing, which is transparent and thorough, is vital to being able to demonstrate to an Inspector or Secretary of State, that all parties impacted by the scheme have been included in the Order. Maintaining an up to date’ interests’ record during the lifecycle of the scheme is essential, for the AA is able to continue to be able to assert, that all parties having an interest, have been included in the Order.

A final referencing refresh before issuing Notices of CPO Confirmation completes this process and also has the practical application of reducing the risk of arriving on site to commence works and face dealing with a ‘new’ owner being unaware of the CPO and its impact on them.

Future Directions

Dalcour Maclaren is constantly looking to innovate, and one particular method that we are looking to incorporate is the automation of data processing. This will benefit us by avoiding human error and allowing us to rely on the data within our database and geospatial systems to provide correct and accurate outputs.

For the purposes of creating a Change Log, Dalcour Maclaren is currently investigating how data that has been updated through refreshes of the data throughout the lifecycle of the scheme can output directly into a Change Log document without the need for manual creation. This will prove more efficient and allow for more reliability in its output ensuring that all changes made to our database and geospatial systems are reflected in the Change Log and the change made is accurately recorded.