You hold the duty. Here is what it actually asks of you.

What changes for a land team

Until now an option was private. You protected it with a unilateral notice, the title showed that something existed, and nobody outside the deal knew who you were or how long you had. From April 2028 HM Land Registry publishes the grantee, the type of right, the land affected and the duration, and refreshes that dataset at least monthly.

The practical effect is that your strategic land pipeline becomes legible to competitors, to the landowner’s neighbours and to planning authorities. Expect ransom strip owners to know exactly when your option runs out.

What triggers a report

• A new contractual control right granted on or after 6 April 2027: within 60 days of grant.
• Assignment of an existing right to a new party: within 60 days, including rights granted before June 2026.
• A written variation that changes the type or scope of the right, the land, the duration, or the conditions governing exercise: within 60 days.
• Exercise of the right: within 60 days.
• Rights granted between 8 June 2026 and 5 April 2027: all of them, by 6 October 2027.

What HMLR will ask for

The parties and their company numbers, the type of right, the title numbers affected, the date of grant, the period and any extension provisions, when the right can be exercised, and the location. Where the right covers only part of a title, HMLR wants machine-readable spatial data (GeoJSON or Shapefile on British National Grid), not a scanned plan. The easiest source is the surveyor who drew the contract plan.

What happens if you don’t

Two things. Failing to provide the information, or knowingly or recklessly providing false or misleading information, is an offence under section 225 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, and the liability sits with the grantee and its officers; a landowner indemnity does not move it. Separately, HM Land Registry may refuse to enter a notice or restriction protecting a right whose information hasn’t been provided, which removes the usual protection against the landowner selling to someone else. Treat the 60 days as a hard deadline in your acquisitions process.

Confidentiality is ending; plan for it

Confidentiality undertakings in your agreements will still bind the landowner, but they cannot stop HMLR publishing what the regulations require. Review template agreements now so warranties and confidentiality clauses reflect the new regime, and price in the negotiating leverage that visibility hands to adjoining owners.