Land Registry – delays and digitisation
‘HM Land Registry safeguards land and property ownership valued at £8 trillion, enabling over £1 trillion worth of personal and commercial lending to be secured against property across England and Wales.’ *
With this level of responsibility, a properly functioning Land Registry is central to the property market in the UK. This has become even more important with the government’s announcement on 9 February of a 12-week project aiming to move forward with digitisation of the home buying and selling process.
HM Land Registry gives a state guarantee of title and ‘UK plc’ is dependent on this stability. In recent times, HM Land Registry has hit the headlines for the wrong reasons – staff are working to rule and processing registration of titles is still slower than it should be. So, should we be worried?
Two years on from his first appearance on the Conveyancing Matters podcast, Mike Harlow, the Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Customer and Strategy, returns for a wide-ranging chat. From the outset Mike faces challenging questions from two experienced property industry professionals, Stuart Forsdike and Lorraine Richardson.
Stuart jumps in at the deep end by asking Mike about the industrial action by HM Land Registry staff that is currently taking place and Lorraine asks Mike why a straightforward registration can take 12 weeks to process.
Mike is honest in his appraisal but also reminds conveyancing firms that they must ‘play fair’ when applying to speed up a registration application (known as ‘expediting’ an application). He says that ‘Queue jumping is not a dirty word if the queue jumping is done for the right reason.’
The conversation moved on to other areas of significance to conveyancing lawyers and everyone involved with the property market, including digitisation, the increased use of technology in the property market and where liability lies in the event of hacking. As Lorraine said: ‘The L word – liability – is the key for a lot of people.’
The continually vexed question of conveyancing delays came up along with a discussion about whether it is realistic to compare England and Wales with Norway where it takes an average of 3 weeks to buy a house. Lenders and cultural issues have a significant part of play in the time it takes to complete a conveyancing transaction in this country.
Mike reinforces that HM Land Registry’s role is to keep the property market moving – key services for conveyancers did not stop, even during covid. And he is fully aware that speed of service by HM Land Registry is the most important thing.
Recruitment and training are up at the Land Registry and Mike is confident that by the end of March, the oldest Land Registry cases will be below 12 months and declining.
Stuart and Lorraine look forward to inviting Mike back at the end of the year to hold him to account!
Stuart said:
It is great to welcome Mike back to Conveyancing Matters. What I appreciate most as a law firm owner is Mike’s statement that HM Land Registry serves law firms, their customers and their clients
Lorraine said:
As ever, Mike is open and obliging in his responses and makes it clear that speed of service is a key driver for HM Land Registry. HM Land Registry’s position is central to the digitisation of the conveyancing process and I hope that front line conveyancers will be consulted and listened to. Law firms will also want to know where liability lies in the event of hacking – Mike and his team will hopefully keep the door open to all conveyancers who are best placed to comment and shape this process.
* Statistics from ‘HM Land Registry – About Us’: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/land-registry/about
Kindly shared by Conveyancing Matters Picture courtesy of Adobe
