E-Conveyancing – making a leap of faith!
Julie Barry – the Communication Manager with the E-Conveyancing Task Force at HM Land Registry – looks at the progress being made towards full E-Conveyancing. Last year the LR launched a major consultation exercise with members of the E-Conveyancing Task Force speaking at events up and down the country: “While many property professionals claim to aspire to a radical overhaul and reform of their present processes and procedures, there is widespread reluctance to consider an ambitious system which to many seems far from present realities,” she says, “except that new reality is just around the corner!”
While her comment was largely directed at solicitors and other conveyancers, it could apply with equal force to the majority of estate agents! Making a leap of faith really could bring significant benefits to a wide range of users. The big question for the LR Task Force is “how to take people along the path from scepticism to belief?”
Firstly, many in the legal profession are extremely nervous. Even firms with IT capability need reassurance that their existing office systems will be compatible with the E-Conveyancing system. Commercial firms will need to be certain that they can access the system 24/7 from anywhere in the world.
Sole practitioners and firms with a small number of fee earners may be coming at E-Conveyancing from a standing start with little practical awareness of “e-anything”. Not least are worries about the setting up and running costs of becoming e-enabled. Above all, the LR must work towards removing the stigma that IT systems are unreliable, insecure and lack resilience.
Another important factor for LR to consider is what Barry has called `change overload'. However appealing and exciting it sounds, E-Conveyancing is just one of a number of initiatives now in the arena. A lot is happening with the modernising of Stamp Duty, Courts and Tribunals Modernisation Programme, Deregulation, Seller's Packs, not to mention the Land Registration Act 2002. The LR is working to gear up the legal profession for the new Act which will come into force in October 2003.
On the agenda?
Over the past eighteen months LR has been developing electronic registration services which will be important forerunners to the full E-Conveyancing system.
Electronic Discharges
Electronic Discharges will enable the lender to signal a change to the register when a legal charge is discharged. Working with two major lenders, the LR is developing the pilot system planned for mid-2003. Using a virtual private network, on the internet, the system will enable a legal charge entry to be removed from the Register automatically, following electronic validation, lender to LR, machine to machine, thus removing the need for any manual online processing. There is a considerable level of interest by lenders in the potential for this new service.
Dematerialisation
Charge certificates, which not only provide proof of title ownership but also registration of the legal charge for security of the loan, are stored by lenders, often at considerable cost. A programme of dematerialisation has resulted in paper charge certificates no longer being prepared for 14 major lenders. The computerised data held by LR can be readily accessed by lenders, and paper certificates prepared, if they were ever required.
Electronic Charges
Even before the start of the pilot for electronic discharges, LR has initiated a project to deliver a system for the electronic registration of charges. This will facilitate electronic discharges by introducing a new feature – electronic signatures on a legal charge document.
Electronic Register Updates
Using the same technical infrastructure and validation processes established to process electronic discharges and charges, LR is working with two major lenders to pilot a system to permit simple electronic updates to the register. This pilot is likely to take place in 2004.
Electronic Lodgement
During the development phases for the full E-Conveyancing system, LR aims to introduce a system for the electronic lodgement of registration applications using LR Direct.
In February 2002 a small but significant start was made to “e-Lodgement” by enabling LR Direct users to lodge simple, no fee applications, electronically.
Typically these relate to changes of names and addresses of registered proprietors or changes in proprietorship status from say a joint proprietor to a sole proprietor. A simple electronic application by the conveyancer is all that is required to effect the change. Whereas previously, documentary evidence would need to be lodged as proof of say, the change of name or status, a certificate by the conveyancer to confirm that they hold the original or certified copy of the documentary evidence will now suffice.
E-Lodgement will progress in three phases with a pilot implementation planned for mid 2003. Phases 2 and 3 then require the use of electronic signatures. Progressively, as the second and third phases are implemented, a clear opportunity will exist for conveyancers to become familiar with electronic completion, execution and transmission of deeds and documents. This should contribute considerably to the effective transition from paper to electronic processes.
Computerisation of the Register
Another strand of LR activity relates to its records conversion programme. Almost 19 million registers are now in a computerised format and index maps will be fully converted into electronic format by the middle of next year. The scanning of deeds referred to on the register is similarly well advanced.
Completing the Land Register
LR estimates that the number of titles still unregistered is around five million and to fully complete the register, LR is actively working with large landowners, Government departments and local authorities to bring their property onto the register. By moving progressively towards completion of all registered titles, users of an E-Conveyancing system will have an increasingly greater chance of dealing successfully in an electronic environment.
All of these initiatives will ultimately facilitate the successful implementation of the full E-Conveyancing system. The next key milestone in the programme will be the publication of a report which summarises the findings of a widespread consultation exercise.
In summary
The point has been reached where E-Conveyancing moves from being purely conceptual to more of a reality. Later in 2003, LR aims to prepare a Report outlining the components and services that will comprise the full E-Conveyancing system and the strategy for putting them in place.
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EAE File Reference: H080 and last revised on Saturday, 8 March 2003