Finance

Fee Order

The Land Registration Fee Order 2004 came into force on 1 April 2004 following the reduction in Land Registry’s Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) target from six per cent to three and half per cent. The percentage cumulative reduction in fees since becoming a trading fund in 1993 is now 53.7 per cent.

The main changes in the new Fee Order were:

• The reduction in the three highest value bands for Scale 1 fees (the maximum Scale 1 fee has been reduced from £750 to £700)
• introduction of full refunds for all overpayments, including fees on cancelled or withdrawn applications
• removal of the separate category of ‘large area applications’ (100+ hectares) which will now be assessed for fee purposes either under Scale 1 or under Article 6 as large-scale applications if appropriate.