Despite the ongoing streamlining and belt-tightening across all business sectors, the Land Registry is willing to write off £11 million previously invested in e-conveyancing and other online services. However, the registry has made it clear that these plans – comprising £6.4 million spent on developing electronic charges, signatures and transfers, and a further £4.5m spent on software to support its planned e-services – are simply on hold for the immediate future rather than cancelled completely, and will be reviewed over the next few years. Although the proposals were primarily aimed at the residential market, the issues and processes are also applicable to commercial property.
The e-transfer proposals would have made it possible to undertake the main conveyancing steps in the sale and purchase of residential and commercial property electronically and with greater transparency, yet consumers were not sufficiently receptive to this idea. A consultation completed in March last year canvassed views on the e-transfer and e-charges systems from stakeholders including conveyancers, lenders, financial institutions, regulatory and representative bodies and other commercial property professionals. The consultation findings were published alongside the Land Registry annual report and indicated that many respondents were ‘unconvinced’ about proceeding with e-transfers. The primary reasons for the overall negative feedback included the slow property market, potentially high levels of fraud (and the risk that existing methods of online fraud could exacerbate the situation) and problems encountered using other electronic Land Registry processes, particularly e-signatures.
Perhaps as an interim measure, Malcolm Dawson, Chief Land Registrar and Chief Executive of the Land Registry, has said the body will concentrate instead on fully automating its delivery systems, enabling customers to electronically send documents that have been prepared in the traditional way. Dawson also claims that consumers would wish to see a progression of e-signatures and e-charges before the issue of e-conveyancing is addressed. However, Peter Rodd of the Law Society’s Property Section believes the eventual introduction of e-transfers to be inevitable. Rodd welcomes the Land Registry’s decision to halt these initial plans as it presents an opportunity for a more informed collaboration of the registry, the Law Society and the Conveyancing Quality Scheme.
So, although procedural and technological changes are being introduced incrementally, it seems the methods of sale of residential and commercial property are evolving.
