Legislation for 2002/2003 session set to enable e-conveyancing within 1924 LR Act
The government is planning legislation within the next three years to allow for full electronic conveyancing.
At the launch of a new internet title service this week, Lord Chancellor Derry Irvine said an Act of Parliament to enable e-conveyancing had been timetabled for the 2002/2003 parliamentary session.
A spokeswoman for the Lord Chancellor said primary legislation was needed to overcome the very tight wording of the 1924 Land Registration Act, which limits the conveyancing of freeholds and long leases to paper formats.
Irvine said: “The prime minister takes a very close personal interest in the development of e-commerce, and that says something about the priority that he attaches to e-conveyancing.”
He said the government would be pressing ahead during the next three years with the scanning of 100m documents and efforts to ensure that the software would be ready to carry out the conveyancing process.
Irvine also said that the new service Land Registry Direct, which will be delivered with software provider Global Crossing via a Private Finance Initiative deal, was a “significant step forward” towards making the conveyancing process online.
Under the new service, the previous £125 licence fee per PC and an additional annual subscription of £200 is replaced by a one-off charge of £100, reduced to £50 for existing users migrating to the new service.
The information available on Land Registry Direct will feed into the National Land Information System.
Norton Rose senior property partner Jonathan Ody said the new service could cut a week off the average commercial property transaction. “It makes investment in property almost as tradeable as shares,” claimed Ody, whose firm has helped to pilot the new facility.
Estates Gazette News 24 June 2000
References: Propert-e News 3/12/2001
