A little-publicised government announcement effectively confirms that the Land Registry has become the sole registering authority for local land charges in England and Wales.
It will also begin a digitalisation process to improve its role in conveyancing.
The passing of the Infrastructure Bill into law at the end of last weej means that the Land Registry will now be able to - in the government's words - improve access to data, standardise fees and improve turnaround times for property professionals and citizens ... [and] undertake new services that would further improve the conveyancing process or benefit the wider property sector.
Until recently, local land charges have been maintained and delivered by each of the 348 English and Welsh local authorities. Fees have varied between £3 and £96, with a predicted turnaround time of between one and 42 days.
CoPSO, the Council of Property Search Organisations, has been campaigning against such a move, which ends local authorities' grip on the one million-plus local land charge searches undertaken annually by conveyancers as part of residential and commercial property transactions and remortgages.
The Registry says the new law means there will be only one standardised digital service, in theory meaning easier access to property information and a simpler conveyancing process. The change has come in as part of the government's Digital By Default programme to put as many official processes as possible online.
Comments
I really like the idea of having one standardized digital service. It's good to know that there are some disruptive technological developments in the conveyancing industry. Thanks for sharing these developments with us. This was a great article! http://anthonyslegal.com.au
I think this could be a great idea. If it makes accessing property information I'm all for it. I'm interested to see how this will change conveyancing overtime and what-not. I think there is potential here though.
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I am not sure this is the right time for the Land Registry to be taking on new projects. Many of my member firms (Bold Legal Group) are reporting serious delays with a number of their LR applications, causing distress to them and the home buying and selling public.
Some lenders, Nat West was mentioned to me on Friday, will write to a buyer after completion and say they their conveyancer has not yet registered their purchase, implying that they might not own their home and even that it might cause difficulty in the future obtaining another mortgage. Often this is not the conveyancers fault and the delay in completing the registration is at the LR. The result is a panicking member of the public and reputational damage to the conveyancer.
Land Registry, please get your house (no pun intended) in order and lenders do your research before laying the blame at the conveyancers door!