Land Reg roll out

Text Box: E-conveyancing will be with us in the next 18 months – indeed, it is with us now in many respects but within that period it may well be that prototypes of the eventual model will be operative. Liz Hirst, Director of E-conveyancing at Land Registry comments, “Our e-conveyancing programme will extend the range of electronic services provided by Land Registry, starting with the Chain Matrix prototype in November. Further services will be released over the coming years until a large proportion of Land Registry’s work is online.” A prototype of Chain Matrix will be trialled in November 2006 for six months in three areas - Bristol, Fareham and Portsmouth. In the meantime, the rollout of the ED (Electronic Discharge) services is progressing steadily. There are three organisations currently using the EDs service – the Nationwide, Abbey and UCB. “We are in continued and active discussions with all lenders who feel they would benefit from utilising EDs,” says Liz Hirst. “As e-conveyancing approaches, the priority to adopt EDs is increasing within lenders’ business plans. EDs is not appropriate for all lenders’ business models and so we are also considering alternative electronic discharge methods compatible with e-conveyancing processes and ultimately replacing ENDs and the use of paper discharge forms (DS1).” On the question of the roll-out of the Central Service, there has been significant progress. Liz Hirst explains, “We are following best practice by implementing large electronic systems in a planned approach. We know that our customers want to avoid a ‘big bang’ and so we have split services with five incremental stages, which we call Tranches. Tranche 1 starts in November with Chain Matrix.” Market research indicates that 68% of solicitors and conveyancers and 70% of estate agents say they would take up the Chain Matrix facility. 74% of estate agents also say they would be keen to receive updates on the chain by e-mail. It has also showed that solicitors have a keen interest in the introduction of a calendar, showing key dates up to final completion. Most importantly, over 86% are likely or very likely to take up the introduction of automatic registration. Currently, Land Registry updates the register after completion has taken place. Under the planned scheme, registration and completion will be done at the same time. Liz Hirst continues, “Land Registry’s plans for electronic funds transfer (EFT), a simultaneous discharge of funds which completes the purchase and settles Stamp Duty Land Tax payments, also proved popular throughout the industry. 77% of conveyancers and 72% of estate agents were interested in using EFT.” On development and implementation of e-signatures, Land Registry has undertaken widespread consultation on electronic security, and has worked closely with the Law Society and interested customers to develop a solution which meets the needs of all parties. “In particular,” comments Liz Hirst, “the Document Authentication prototype project enabled a trial of the use of electronic signatures with different types of security tokens (for example a USB device). A group of conveyancing firms volunteered to use the prototype service and take part in the subsequent evaluation.” In Scotland, the Registers of Scotland (ROS) are only providing an e-registration system, not an e-conveyancing system. This system is called ARTL - Automated Registration of Title to Land. The conveyancing that leads to that registration is currently, very much a paper-based process. The deed to be registered takes the form of an electronic document and it and the associated registration application are created in a structured manner within a secure environment. PKI technology authenticates various critical events such as the digital signing of digital deeds. When the registration application is submitted, it can be processed automatically allowing the register updated by the start of the next working day. ARTL presents a 'one stop shop' handling SDLT certification and payment on behalf of the HM Revenue and Customs as well as the land registration interaction. The first live trial electronic registrations are intended to take place in November, with roll-out of the full system functionality across Scotland beginning in February 2007. Secure general e-mail is not within the remit of the ARTL project, however, certain system communications will benefit from being created and delivered within the secure system, with details being retained in the system audit trail.

ROS will be issuing smartcard-based digital signatures, free of charge, to all necessary staff within participating solicitor firms and lending institutions. The intention is not to issue digital signatures to members of the public and solicitors will digitally sign electronic deeds on their clients' behalf. Procedures to ensure that evidence of the client having authorised the signature is retained have been agreed with the Law Society of Scotland. The digital deeds will be created and managed using Adobe Reader software. Adobe Reader v7 and above includes elements that allow for the application of a digital signatures and it is this functionality that will be used within ARTL The ARTL roll out will start in November with a small scale deployment that will be increased so that every firm that wants to sign up to ARTL will be able to be using the system by the end of April 2007. Rupert Kendrick is a solicitor and director of Web4Law Ltd., a risk management consultancy, and he specialises in IT and Internet risk issues. He can be contacted by e-mail at Rupert@web4law.biz or visit www.web4law.biz

Land Registry E-conveyancing roll out. A look behind the scenes at both English and Scottish Land Registries by Rupert Kendrick.