Re-instating security: what’s the best approach?

Two recent cases have provided helpful illustrations of the courts’ approach to applications to re-instate incorrectly discharged security.

In Barclays Bank UK PLC v Terry EWHC [2023] 2726 (Ch) Barclays accidentally discharged several thousand mortgages at HM Land Registry despite sums still being outstanding under the mortgages. The case of MS Lending Group Ltd v LVR Capital Ltd [2023] EWHC 2509 (Ch) in contrast involved a deliberate release by the company’s sole director of charges registered against the company at Companies House.

The cases provide useful reminders to practitioners of how to approach the reinstatement of charges at the Land Registry and alteration of the registers at both Companies House and the Land Registry. In particular it is of note that in bringing its claim Barclays did not attempt to rely on the court’s...