Manorial & Mineral Rights When Selling Your House: UK Guide

By Lisa Hayes · 9 November 2026

Short answer: manorial and mineral rights rarely stop a sale, but they can trip up a conveyancer who has never met one. If your title is registered, most buyers who purchase from you after 12 October 2013 take the land free of unprotected manorial rights. Mineral rights are a different animal, and whether they sit with your property or with someone else depends entirely on what your title says. Check the register early and the issue is usually a footnote. Ignore it, and it becomes a three-week delay at the worst possible moment.

What are manorial rights, in plain English?

Centuries ago, the land in England and Wales was divided into manors. The lord of the manor held certain rights over land that was occupied and farmed by other people (often copyhold tenants). When copyhold was abolished on 1 January 1926, the lord was allowed to keep a handful of those rights over land he had once granted. Those survivors are what we now call manorial rights.

HM Land Registry's own guidance describes them by reference to Schedule 12 of the Law of Property Act 1922. They include rights to mines and minerals, rights of entry and search for them, and rights of chase or warren, which is the old language for hunting, shooting, fishing and fowling. So a "manorial right" on your title might mean the right to hunt game over your garden, or the right to dig for minerals beneath it. Quaint. Also real, in theory.

Here is the thing most homeowners want to hear. In practice, nobody has turned up to shoot pheasants in a suburban back garden. The reason it matters is not that the rights are likely to be used. It is that a buyer's lender and solicitor will see the words on the register and ask what they mean.

What changed on 12 October 2013?

Before that date, manorial rights were "overriding interests". That means they bound whoever owned the land, even if nothing at all appeared on the register. Section 117 of the Land Registration Act 2002, together with the 2003 transitional order, ended that automatic protection. HM Land Registry's Practice Guide 66 says these interests "lost their overriding status at midnight on 12 October 2013".

Six interests were affected, not only manorial rights:

• a manorial right
• a right in respect of the repair of a church chancel
• a franchise
• a right to rent reserved to the Crown on the granting of a freehold estate
• a non-statutory right in respect of an embankment or sea or river wall
• a right to payment in lieu of tithe

If you have come here worried about chancel repair, we have a dedicated guide: selling a house with chancel repair liability. This article stays with manorial and mineral rights.

To keep the right alive, the person who held it had to enter a notice on the register (for registered land) or lodge a caution against first registration (for unregistered land) before the deadline. Lots of lords of the manor did exactly that, which is why you will still find manorial entries on some titles. Plenty did not.

If nobody registered the right, is it gone?

Not exactly, and this is where people (including some solicitors) oversimplify. Practice Guide 66 says that interests not protected before the deadline "do not automatically cease to exist on that date". The right continues against the land. What changes is what happens when the land is sold.

For land registered before 13 October 2013, a person who acquires the registered estate "for valuable consideration by way of a registrable disposition after 12 October 2013 will take free from that interest", under section 29 of the 2002 Act. In other words, the next time the property is sold and the sale is registered, an unprotected manorial right falls away as far as the buyer is concerned.

Two honest caveats, both from the Land Registry's own guidance. First, until that sale is registered, the person with the benefit of the right can still apply to protect it by notice, and the Registry will accept the application without checking whether the owner has changed. Second, the guidance says the courts have still to consider whether the register can be altered to add a notice after the owner has already taken free, and whether compensation might be payable if it cannot. So the position is clear in the main and unsettled at the edges.

How do I find out whether my property has manorial rights?

You are looking at three places.

1. The property register and charges register. Download the official copies from HM Land Registry. Look for a notice, or wording such as "subject to the reservation of any rights of the lord referred to in the 12th Schedule of the Law of Property Act 1922", or a note that the land "was formerly copyhold of the Manor of" somewhere.
2. The title plan. Not usually informative on this point, but you want to be sure what land the register covers.
3. Old deeds, if your land is unregistered. HM Land Registry says it cannot give information about rights affecting unregistered property. If you are in that rare position, your solicitor will need to read the deeds. If you are not sure how to read your register, our guide to your title register and the entries that kill sales walks through it line by line.

Do this before you list. A seller who has already read the register can answer the buyer's solicitor in a day. A seller who has not will spend a fortnight finding out what a "twelfth schedule" is while the buyer's mortgage offer ticks towards expiry.

Do manorial rights affect what my house is worth?

For a typical house, almost never. There is no published UK data on price discounts for manorial rights, and anyone quoting you a percentage is guessing. What I can say from how sales actually go is this: the risk is not a lower price, it is a stalled transaction. A lender's valuer or solicitor spots an unfamiliar entry, asks for clarification, and the file sits.

The cases where it does bite are the unusual ones. A large plot with development potential, where mineral or sporting rights might matter to a developer. Or a property where the register shows that minerals are expressly reserved to someone else and the buyer's lender has a nervous underwriting policy. Those are exceptions.

Mineral rights: the part that did not change in 2013

Here is where people get caught out by assuming the 2013 change fixed everything. It did not. The Land Registry's guidance is explicit that mines and minerals were not affected by it. They can still be registered if the applicant has enough evidence, and a future sale of the surface makes no difference to them.

Under the Land Registration Act 2002, "mines and minerals" include any strata or seam of minerals or substances in or under land, together with the powers of working and getting them. They can be owned separately from the surface. That is how you end up with a family owning the house and somebody else owning what lies beneath it.

Who usually owns what is underneath?

• Coal: most coal belongs to the Coal Authority. Registered titles will not include it.
• Gold, silver and petroleum: these are vested in the Crown, and again will not be in your title.
• Other minerals (stone, clay, metal ores and the like): these may have been reserved to a previous owner, a lord of the manor or an estate when the land was first sold or enclosed, and may or may not be in your title.

If you live in a former mining area, our guide to selling a house in a coal mining area covers the coal-specific searches and what they mean.

Are minerals included in my title?

HM Land Registry's Practice Guide 65 says minerals are "rebuttably presumed to be included" in the surface title. Read that carefully. A presumption can be rebutted, and there is a catch that matters if something goes wrong: no indemnity (compensation) is payable for minerals unless the register carries a specific note that they are included. The standard wording is a note that, for the purposes of paragraph 2 of Schedule 8 to the Land Registration Act 2002, the mines and minerals are included in the title.

So look for that note. If it is there, the position is stronger. If it is silent, you are relying on the presumption.

Can someone come and dig under my house?

This is the question every buyer's mother asks. The honest answer is that the Land Registry guidance does not spell out, for a given property, how a mineral owner's right of entry binds a buyer. That depends on the underlying legal documents. What the guidance does show is the machinery that could matter: severed minerals created when a transfer excepts them, certain overriding interests for coal under the Coal Industry Act 1994, and rights to enter and extract (profits à prendre) that must be registered if granted out of registered land.

Your solicitor, not an article, should answer this for your specific title. In real life, working of minerals under a modern residential street is very rare, and for coal there are statutory searches. But "rare" is not the same as "impossible", and a good conveyancer will say so.

Comparison: manorial rights vs mineral rights

What happens if a notice is already on my register?

You do not remove it. A notice protects the priority of an interest only if the interest is valid, and the Registry itself says an entry does not guarantee that the interest exists. Cancelling is possible in some circumstances, but the Land Registry notes that once a notice has been entered, the interest cannot regain its old automatic status even if the notice is later cancelled.

For most sellers the sensible approach is not to fight it. Instead you give your buyer's solicitor a plain explanation: what the entry says, that the right has not been exercised in your time (only say this if it is true), and whether anyone has ever contacted you about it. Be accurate. Never guess.

What do I have to tell the buyer?

Disclosure is where honesty matters most. The standard TA6 Property Information Form asks about notices, disputes and rights affecting the property, and you must answer truthfully. Our guide to the TA6 form explains the questions that catch people out, and our piece on material information covers what must be in the listing before a buyer even enquires.

If you know about a manorial entry or severed minerals, say so. If you only learn about it when the official copies arrive, say so then. Solicitors will tell you the same thing: the sellers who run into trouble are almost never the ones who disclosed an ancient reservation. They are the ones who knew and stayed quiet.

Common mistakes I see sellers make

What if a lord of the manor or mineral owner contacts me?

Do not reply with a cheque and do not ignore it. Pass it to your solicitor straight away. Because the unprotected-right rule turns on a registered sale for value, anything that tries to protect a right late, or to impose a fee in the middle of your transaction, is exactly the sort of thing a solicitor should look at. Whether any payment is sensible depends on what is on your register and the underlying documents, and I cannot judge that for you from here.

Equally, if you are the person who thinks you hold such a right, the Land Registry's route is a notice application. A unilateral notice (form UN1) does not need the owner's consent, and the owner is told after it is entered. The fee amounts are on the Land Registry's fees page, and I have not quoted figures because they change.

Will a lender refuse a mortgage on a house with these rights?

Most mainstream lenders follow the UK Finance Lenders' Handbook and rely on their solicitor's report. A historic reservation of sporting rights or old manorial wording will normally just need a short explanation. Severed minerals, a recorded profit à prendre or evidence of live mineral working are the ones that can make an underwriter pause. If a buyer's lender pushes back, ask your solicitor whether the issue can be solved by clarification, or whether indemnity insurance is worth discussing. Our guide to indemnity insurance when selling explains what it covers and what it does not. Insurance is a plaster, not a cure, and lenders vary on whether they will accept it for a given risk.

Unregistered land and possessory title

If your land is not registered at all, the whole picture changes. HM Land Registry cannot tell you what rights affect unregistered property, and when it is first registered, rights that appear from the deeds must be entered. Those entries are not affected by the 2013 change. Selling a property with an unregistered or weak title is a different exercise, and our guide to selling with possessory title shows how it plays out. For a first registration the Land Registry also notes the class of title is often qualified where minerals are involved, which a buyer's solicitor will want to understand.

Step by step: what to do this week

1. Get the official copies of the register and title plan for your property.
2. Read every entry in the property register and charges register. Highlight anything with "reservation", "excepted", "manor", "copyhold", "minerals" or "sporting".
3. Check for the mines and minerals note about paragraph 2 of Schedule 8.
4. Find out if you are in a coal mining area and have the appropriate search ready.
5. Brief your solicitor before you go to market, not after an offer arrives.
6. Answer the TA6 honestly and keep a short note explaining anything unusual.
7. Do not agree any payment or deal with a third party without advice.

When a normal sale gets difficult: the cash route

Occasionally a title issue arrives too late, the buyer's lender will not move and your chain is wobbling. If you need certainty more than the last pound of price, a cash buyer can sometimes proceed where a lender will not. Be careful: some companies offer far below market value, which is why we publish a guide to how below-market-value offers work, and a guide to cash house buyers so you know what is normal. If speed is your priority, see selling a house fast. Compare more than one offer. Always.

For most sellers with a harmless manorial entry, though, the conventional route works perfectly well once you have done your homework.

Frequently asked questions

What are manorial rights?

They are ancient rights retained by a lord of the manor over land, including rights to mines and minerals, rights of entry and rights to hunt, shoot or fish. They are defined by reference to Schedule 12 of the Law of Property Act 1922.

Do manorial rights still exist in 2026?

Yes, where they were protected by a notice on the register before the October 2013 deadline, or where an entry exists. Unprotected ones do not automatically disappear, but a registered sale for value after 12 October 2013 passes the land to the buyer free of them.

Can manorial rights stop me selling my house?

Very rarely. They more often cause delay than prevent a sale, usually while the buyer's solicitor asks for an explanation.

Do I own the minerals under my house?

Not necessarily. Minerals are presumed to be included in your surface title, but the presumption can be rebutted. Most coal belongs to the Coal Authority, and gold, silver and petroleum belong to the Crown.

How do I check for mineral rights?

Read the official copies for a mines and minerals note and any reservations, and ask your solicitor to run the relevant searches, including a coal mining search if you are in a mining area.

Do I have to disclose manorial or mineral rights?

You must answer the TA6 form truthfully, and if you know of a relevant entry or dispute you should say so. Your solicitor will advise on exact wording.

Should I pay someone who contacts me about a manorial right?

Not before taking legal advice. Send anything you receive to your solicitor.

Where to go from here

Most manorial and mineral questions are settled by reading one document properly. If you want a broader sense of the paperwork a sale needs, see our guides hub and our property jargon explained page, which unpicks phrases like "overriding interest" and "profit à prendre". And if you want to know what your home might fetch before you worry about the small print, start with a free house valuation.

When you are ready to see real numbers, you can compare offers for your home. No obligation, and we are independent, so there is nothing to sell you except clarity.