Miss the registration deadline after a triggering event and a transfer takes effect only in equity — the consequences of first registration run deeper than form-filling. This chapter opens with the system itself: the shift from unregistered conveyancing, the two routes onto the register, and the three parts of a newly opened title. It then works through compulsory first registration and its triggering events, who must apply and what happens when they fail to do so in time, and the classes of title — absolute, possessory, qualified and good leasehold — that can be awarded and later upgraded. It closes with the interests that override first registration, including those of persons in actual occupation, and the voluntary route onto the register alongside cautions against first registration.
