E-Conveyancing
The Land Registry has been planning on restructuring the process
of conveyancing for a number of years now. By developing an
electronic system of conveyancing the Land Registry aims to make it
faster, easier and more secure than its paper equivalent. The Land
Registry Act 2002 laid down the legislative foundations for the
transformation of the buying and selling of property in England and
Wales into a paperless system. The bringing in of the electronic
system is to be phased and by 2010 it is hoped that e-conveyancing
will be functional for use by the general public, conveyancing
practitioners and all other parties involved in the process.
The key ideas behind e-conveyancing are that it is to be
paperless, there is to be no time lag between completion and
registration and this will allow for 'chain transparency'.
This is to be achieved in a number of ways. There will be network
access agreements for users to sign up to and submit their
electronic documents online. Parties will be able to execute
documents using electronic signatures. An automated validation
check will ensure that deeds, forms and applications are more
accurate. There are to be enhanced e-lodgements and registration
will be produced instantly on completion. There is to be a link to
HM Revenue and Customs for the payment of SDLT. Eventually the Land
Registry proposes for an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). This will
allow for the simultaneous transfer of purchase and sale funds, as
well as the payment of professional and mortgage fees. This would
be of great benefit especially when dealing with long chains.
The Land Registry aims to make chain transactions more
efficient. It proposes to introduce a 'Chain Matrix'. This
will to allow buyers, sellers, their legal representatives, estate
agents and lenders to view the progress of every transaction in the
property chain. The Chain Matrix will be automatically updated with
any changes and a completion calendar will show when each stage is
due to be completed. In March 2007 the Land Registry launched a
pilot scheme of the Chain Matrix prototype.
The results of the Chain Matrix prototype have been published in
an evaluation report. The prototype did not produce the results the
Land Registry anticipated. The main conclusions were that users
were not given sufficient training. Many users failed to use the
system. Out of the 229 complete chains that were entered, only 15%
of clients and 31 out of 99 estate agents, who had access...
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