Campaign Launches to Save the Land Registry

Campaign Launches to Save the Land Registry

The Land Registry is under threat as a new government consultation, closing on March 20 2014, examines its future. In response to this, a new website — www.savethelandregistry.co.uk — launched this week and the man behind the Save the Land Registry campaign, Gary Yantin, MD of High Street Lawyer, is urging high street law firms to get involved and make their views heard. ‘

The Land Registry is the part of the conveyancing industry that most people are very happy with — it’s been around for 150 years and it works,’ Yantin told Today’s Conveyancer. ‘It’s a good service, it’s modern and up to speed and it has a 98% satisfaction result from customer reports. The people using the Land Registry — solicitors and conveyancers up and down the country — are happy with the service it provides. So if it ain’t broke — why fix it?’ ‘

We know people care about the future of the Land Registry — the website has had over 500 hits since it launched on Monday March 3,’ Yantin says. ‘We want people to add their views in the blog section of the site so we can collate them and present them to the government. The consultation ends on March 20 so we only have a short window of opportunity — the next two weeks are crucial. And people need to sign the government e-petition that has been started by Elizabeth Matfin and write to their MP.’

There is a lot at stake, according to Yantin.

‘The main issue concerns separating the Land Registry into two parts and considering whether or not it should move from being what’s called a Trading Fund at the moment — a government entity that is self-funding and self-financing — into some form of corporate entity that could potentially be owned by a private company.’

The government, in the consultation document, says that it will retain the office of the Chief Land Registrar, but that there could be a service delivery company that will carry out most of the day to day functions of the Land Registry, the impact of which could be very, very far-reaching.’

‘At present we have a system that works and that everyone is happy with and we’re looking at replacing that with a company that is potentially motivated by profit. Whoever ends up running the Land Registry will effectively be buying a state monopoly and a system that is currently motivated by providing good service will change to being something that is motivated by profit.’

Yantin says that in his work with law firms across the country he’s finding that there are serious concerns about the impact of the consultation.

‘It could affect so many people,’ he says. ‘You have the 3000 plus staff who work for the Land Registry, all civil servants with years of experience between them; you have the CoPSO companies, who are currently providing all the services this new private Land Registry could vacuum up; you’ve got conveyancers up and down the land who, if the proposals go a certain way, may find responsibility for proving title to a property now rests with them. At the moment you can rely on the Land Registry but a system of self-service could take its place, so the lawyer will have the onus of responsibility of proving that the registered title of land is correct.’

So what sorts of questions does Gary believe law firms and conveyancers should be asking?

‘How is this going to impact my PII? What systems and IT equipment will be needed and at what cost? Will every solicitor/conveyancer be allowed to register title or will it be restricted to a ‘trusted community’? What happens if the new privately owned company applies to be an ABS? For two years running the Land Registry has been able to reduce its fees but that trend is unlikely to continue under privatisation. And, at the end of it all, it will be the consumer who loses out.’

What particularly worries Yantin, given all this, is that the consultation does not offer the option of keeping the status quo.

‘That’s why we need to make the voice of the high street lawyer heard,’Yantin says. ‘What we need to tell the government is — let’s put in an option of keeping the status quo. Are we happy with what we’ve got and, if we are, let’s keep it.’

*Visit www.savethelandregistry.co.uk to back the campaign and to share your views on the future of the Land Registry.

General News

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *