Open Property Data Association
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    Concept tier Module: property

    Property

    The Property module is the Identity-Criterion crux of OPDA. It distinguishes:

    • the physical Property (a house, a flat — bricks and mortar);
    • the Legal Estate vested in it (the rights bundle — Freehold, Leasehold, Commonhold);
    • the Registered Title that documents the Legal Estate at HMLR;
    • the Address that locates the Property (in any of several authority-issued forms: title, marketing, INSPIRE).

    These four are routinely conflated in property data. OPDA keeps them separate because they have different Identity Criteria: a Property can persist while its Title is closed and reopened; a Title can persist through a Lease Extension that mutates (but does not break) the Legal Estate; an Address can change without the Property changing.

    This module also contains two reified lifecycle events — Lease Extension Event and UPRN Succession Event — that record administrative changes which, importantly, do not break the underlying Property or Legal Estate identity.

    Entities

    • Address — an authority-issued locator for a Property
    • Lease Extension Event — a statutory lease-extension event that mutates a leasehold’s term without breaking its identity
    • Lease Term — the time interval bounding a leasehold tenure
    • Legal Estate — the bundle of legal rights vested in a Property
    • Property — the physical residential property
    • Registered Title — the HMLR title-register record documenting a Legal Estate

    Module-internal relationships

    The Property quartet (Property — LegalEstate — RegisteredTitle — Address) and the two reified identity-preserving lifecycle events:

    --- config: layout: elk --- %%{init: {"theme": "base"}}%% flowchart LR accTitle: Property module internal relationships accDescr: Property at the centre; LegalEstate vested in it; RegisteredTitle documenting the LegalEstate; Address locating the Property; Lease Term and Lease Extension Event for leasehold lifecycle; UPRN Succession Event preserving Property identity across administrative re-numbering. classDef cls fill:#E1BEE7,stroke:#6A1B9A,stroke-width:2px,color:#4A148C classDef ext fill:#ECEFF1,stroke:#455A64,stroke-width:2px,color:#263238 %% Property quartet Property["Property
    (spatial-material continuant)"]:::cls Address["Address
    (authority locator)"]:::cls LegalEstate["LegalEstate
    (rights bundle)"]:::cls RegisteredTitle["RegisteredTitle
    (HMLR record)"]:::cls %% Leasehold lifecycle LeaseTerm["LeaseTerm
    (time interval)"]:::cls LeaseExtensionEvent["LeaseExtensionEvent
    (reified)"]:::cls %% UPRN lifecycle UPRNSuccessionEvent["UPRNSuccessionEvent
    (reified)"]:::cls %% Cross-module Proprietorship["Proprietorship
    (agent module)"]:::ext Transaction["Transaction
    (transaction module)"]:::ext %% Core quartet Property -->|"hasAddress (1..*)"| Address Property -->|"hasLegalEstate (1..*)"| LegalEstate LegalEstate -->|"documentedBy"| RegisteredTitle RegisteredTitle -->|"identifiesPropertyOf"| Property %% Leasehold subtype LegalEstate -->|"leaseTerm (if leasehold)"| LeaseTerm LeaseExtensionEvent -->|"extends"| LegalEstate LeaseExtensionEvent -->|"produces successor"| LeaseTerm LeaseExtensionEvent -->|"updates"| RegisteredTitle %% UPRN succession UPRNSuccessionEvent -->|"re-numbers"| Property UPRNSuccessionEvent -->|"accompanies"| Address %% Cross-module touch points (faded) Proprietorship -.->|"binds"| RegisteredTitle Transaction -.->|"conveys"| LegalEstate

    Lifecycle: Property identity-criterion decision flow

    Walk the four mutually-exclusive outcomes for a candidate Property record:

    %%{init: {"theme": "base"}}%% flowchart TD accTitle: Property Identity-Criterion decision flow accDescr: Decision tree resolving whether two Property records refer to the same Property — spatial-material continuity check first, then legal-record override; outcomes are persist, succeed, subdivide, merge, or distinct Property. classDef cls fill:#E1BEE7,stroke:#6A1B9A,stroke-width:2px,color:#4A148C classDef success fill:#C8E6C9,stroke:#2E7D32,stroke-width:2px,color:#1B5E20 classDef warning fill:#FFF9C4,stroke:#F9A825,stroke-width:2px,color:#F57F17 classDef errorState fill:#FFCDD2,stroke:#C62828,stroke-width:2px,color:#B71C1C Start(["Two candidate
    Property records"]):::cls Q1{"Same spatial-material
    continuant
    (same bricks)?"}:::cls Q2{"Legal-record evidence
    of replacement
    (demolition cert,
    new title)?"}:::cls Q3{"Subdivision or merger
    recorded?"}:::cls Persist(["SAME Property
    (identity persists)"]):::success Override(["NEW Property
    (legal-record override)"]):::warning Split(["Subdivision or Merger
    (see hard cases)"]):::warning Distinct(["DIFFERENT Property"]):::errorState Start --> Q1 Q1 -->|"Yes"| Q2 Q1 -->|"No"| Q3 Q2 -->|"No"| Persist Q2 -->|"Yes"| Override Q3 -->|"Yes"| Split Q3 -->|"No"| Distinct

    Lifecycle: Registered Title lineage

    How a Registered Title’s identity moves through registry events without taking the underlying Legal Estate with it:

    %%{init: {"theme": "base"}}%% stateDiagram-v2 accTitle: Registered Title lifecycle accDescr: First registration opens a Title; closure ends a Title; merger and reissuance produce successor Titles with explicit predecessor lineage; the underlying Legal Estate may persist across all of these. [*] --> FirstRegistration : new HMLR title number FirstRegistration --> Active : title number assigned Active --> Active : routine update
    (no lineage break) Active --> Reissued : reissue on corrupt-plan
    or admin replacement Active --> Merged : merged into another Title Active --> Closed : closure (e.g. on amalgamation) Active --> Transferred : moved between
    district registries Reissued --> Active : successor Title
    linked to predecessor Transferred --> Active : same Title, new register Merged --> [*] : Title ceases;
    LegalEstate may persist Closed --> [*] : Title ceases;
    LegalEstate may persist

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