According to a report in Landnet, the Land Registry’s customer magazine, the Land Registry have decided to “halt the development of electronic transfers (e-transfers)”.
The Land Registry received 43 responses to their consultation, which sought views on the proposal to create e-transfers, including electronic signatures. Conveyancers, lenders, financial institutions, property professionals and regulatory and representative bodies took part in the consultation, E-conveyancing secondary legislation — Part 3, where the majority of responses indicated that e-transfers were not necessarily desirable or even achievable in the current climate. Low property sales and an increased risk of fraud were stated as examples of why respondents did not believe that e-transfers would be of any benefit. One major concern was that the system proposed for creating and apply the electronic signatures was far too complicated. Customers also felt that the e-charge system was also lacking when it came to meeting their needs.
Chief Land Registrar and Chief Executive, Malcolm Dawson, commented:
“After listening to a wide range of people, we are now focusing on electronic lodgement and despatch. We believe this solution, whereby customers can use e-channels to send us paper documents, is practical, sensible and in tune with their needs.”
Being able to lodge your AP1s electronically would surely be a huge benefit to conveyancers, it would certainly help with environmental issues, but isn’t there still an element of concern over the risk of fraud?
What do you think — would you prefer to submit applications to the Land Registry via “e-channels”?
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