A person who claims to have an interest which affect the relevant land may lodge a caution against the registration of title to an unregistered legal estate that may be registered according to s 3of the LRA 2002, those are ((a)an estate in land, (b)a rentcharge, (c)a franchise, and (d)a profit a prendre in gross. An unregistered estate may be freehold land or leasehold land. So someone who has an interest in an equitable lease or a contract for the sale of land, can apply for caution against first registration against the owner of the freehold land. so when the owner of the freehold land which is still unregistered applies to register it the registrar will have notice of this interest and may therefore enter it on the land registry so that his rights persists despite the first registration against the owner of the now newly registered estate in land and subsequently against subsequent purchasers for value of the registered estate or any disposition thereof. (if the registered disposition is not for value and the interest is not protected by notice it still retains its priority). Note that a caution may be applied only to an unregistered estate that may be registered under s 3 of the LRA 2002. If the estate is not one that may be registered under the LRA 2002 then a caution cannot be entered since that interest is not capable of being registered in its own right.
