DO YOU OWN LAND OR BUILDINGS IN THE UK?
Are you likely to want to be able to sell or lease it?
Is the ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) identifiable to the public either through the public land registers in the UK or as a person of significant control at Companies Houses in the UK?
IF NOT, YOU NEED TO FILE IN A NEW UK REGISTER WHICH SEEKS TO IDENTIFY ALL UBOs OF UK LAND.
The penalty for failing to register these details is a fine or five years in prison, but more importantly, an inability to sell or deal with the land or buildings.
Even if you no longer own the property, if you own it at 1st March 2022, you must still register.
THIS IS THE STRICTEST REGIME INTRODUCED ANYWHERE THAT WE ARE AWARE OF BUT IS LIMITED TO LAND IN THE UK. IT IS NOT AN EU RULE.
Registration
We can do the registration work for you but, the regime requires the utmost level of due diligence. And in the case of trusts as UBOs, requires the names, addresses and more of every single living beneficiary or potential beneficiary, whether named or not. If one of the beneficiaries is another trust, then, you can imagine the magnitude of the exercise.
Even though it does not need saying, any information shared with us for the purposes of this registration remains subject to utmost confidentiality.
The level of our fees will depend upon how much due diligence we need to do. Of course, you can help by doing as much of it yourself, possibly by looking at any information you have already provided for the purposes of know your client checks or to comply with anti-money laundering legislation. See https://www.gov.uk/guidance/register-an-overseas-entity.
If we need to pay external search fees we will contact you first.