Property Logbooks - call for official legal recognition

A call has gone out for Property Logbooks to receive official recognition as “digital assets” by the Law Commission: the move that would strengthen the case for their widespread adoption.

The Residential Logbook Association - a trade group advocating that such logbooks be integrated into the property industry - is responding to a formal consultation by the Law Commission, which is considering how so-called ‘digital assets’ are recognised and protected.

The RLBA submission to the consultation process has asked that a specific focus is made on the needs of the property industry, which has seen an explosion in new data sets, apps, and services.

“If we want the digitisation of the property industry to gain momentum we need to put the legal and regulatory building blocks in place” says Nigel Walley, chair of the RLBA.  

The association wants the legal industry to recognise data and documentation held in property logbooks as ‘digital assets’ attached to a physical property to be listed on a fixtures and fittings form during sale.

The Law Commission has asked for consideration of how digital assets can be both ‘owned’ and in some instances ‘possessed’ - which has a different legal connotation. The RLBA suggested that the key difference should be the level of access and control a homeowner has to data about their home.    

In its submission, the RLBA offered two contrasting examples: firstly data held about your home by a utility which should be classed as ‘owned’ by the homeowner but not possessed by them, and secondly the data held in a logbook which can be classed as both ‘owned’ and ‘possessed’ as they are in full control of who can access and process the data.

The Law Commission consultation focuses heavily on the needs of new digital assets that use blockchain technologies. The RLBA  asked that the Law Commission not be diverted to work on issues raised by blockchain when it believes the property industry has more immediate digital issues to resolve.