free vs paid land registry searches

Free vs Paid Land Registry Searches: When GOV.UK Is Enough and When It Is Not

A practical guide to when a free government property search is enough and when a paid corporate-ownership workflow adds value.

Published 2026-04-05 Updated 2026-04-12 Commercial

Government search is essential, but not always sufficient

GOV.UK property search is the right place to go when you need a direct title document for a known property. A paid corporate-ownership search becomes useful when the hard part is not ordering the document, but figuring out which entity or titles you should investigate in the first place.

That is the commercial gap this site is trying to fill for legal and due-diligence teams.

Next step

Move from research to evidence

Use the live registry tool to validate the companies, titles, and addresses discussed in this article.

Search company ownership data