• July 22, 2020

Digital conveyancing preferred option for people during pandemic may lead to avoiding paper process

LONDON July 22: HM Land Registry have claimed that in the wake of the global pandemic, people will be less tolerant of a paper-heavy conveyancing process.

Chair of the Land Registry, Michael Mire has expressed his desire to make property transactions more digital in the future as he claims the current conveyancing process is too paper-based in comparison with many other sectors of the economy.
With the fear of coronavirus being prevalent, consumers may be less tolerant and therefore expect a progress in technology within the conveyancing market.
Digital conveyancing would require structured data and in a step towards this the registry will announce a digital registration service this summer, validating the data before it is submitted and therefore reducing the need for paper.
Artificial intelligence-based processing was introduced last year to send customer reminder letters but is now speeding up casework.
The improvements in technology will hopefully allow the HM Land Registry to attain more of its 15 key performance indicators, having only met 6 of its KPIs during 2019/20. By testing more artificial intelligence programmes, this can further reduce time-consuming manual tasks and promise quicker results.
The HM Land Registry had said it will soon begin to accept witnessed electronic signatures in the conveyancing process. It has published draft practice guidance on the process with a call for feedback which closed on 18th July 2020.
It is also taking steps for qualified electronic signatures – a form of digital signature – to be used when working with it.