The Register of Overseas Entities (Verification and Provision of Information) Regulations 2022, which provide further detail on how some aspects of the new register of overseas entities owning UK property will operate in practice, have been made.
The new register is being introduced by the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 (ECA), which received royal assent in March. Under the ECA, overseas entities that own land in the UK will have to be listed on a public register maintained by Companies House – see our corporate blog post here for further details on the new register and this snapshot for how it will impact land transactions.
The areas covered by the Regulations include:
- the verification of information about the beneficial owners and managing officers of overseas entities. This information will need to be verified by a “relevant person” (such as a lawyer, accountant or regulated company-service provider) upon initial registration, before each required annual update to Companies House and before any application to remove an entity can be made; and
- the method of delivery of certain information to Companies House during the transitional period in relation to dispositions of land between 28 February 2022 and the end of the transitional period.
The Regulations will come into force on the same date as the relevant provisions of the ECA that create the new register – the commencement order for those provisions has not yet been made.
A draft of the Register of Overseas Entities (Delivery, Protection and Trust Services) Regulations 2022 has also been published. Once in force, the regulations will, among other things, introduce a regime to allow certain personal information to be made unavailable for public inspection where the entity’s activities would put individuals at serious risk of violence or intimidation. These regulations will also come into force on the same date as the relevant provisions of the ECA that create the new register.
For further information, please contact:
Sarah Hawes, Herbert Smith Freehills
sarah.hawes@hsf.com
