Land Registry unveils latest digital upgrade for agents and others

HM Land Registry customers - including agents and conveyancers - can now manage all of their applications and correspondence including notices, requisitions and letters, in one central portal.

A new interface branded as View My Applications should make it quicker to find the information Registry users want, reducing the time they would previously have spent contacting the institution for status updates.

A complementary aim of the service is to enable rapid validation of data and eliminate the need for HM Land Registry to send requests for further information. 

This is the latest in a series of digital enhancements introduced by the Registry.

Last month it began accretion electronic signatures on documents for the  transfer of ownership of property, the creation of leases, and on securing mortgages, spurred on by the need for social distancing for the mid-term.

HMLR says this should allow a substantial simplification and faster execution of conveyancing.

It has also made it easier to verify individuals’ ID, allowing retired conveyancers, chartered legal executives, solicitors and barristers; bank officials and regulated financial advisers; medical doctors, dentists and veterinary surgeons; chartered and certified accountants; and police officers and officers in the UK armed forces to be accepted as signatories, as well as chartered legal executives and conveyancers. 

The Registry will also accept deeds that have been signed using what it calls the  ‘Mercury signing approach’.

This means that, for land registration purposes, a signature page will need to be signed in pen and witnessed in person - not by a video call. 

The signature will then need to be captured, with a scanner or a camera, to produce a PDF, JPEG or other suitable copy of the signed signature page. 

The guidance page for View My Applications is here.