E-Conveyancing – Future of Conveyancing in light of the Land Registration Act 2002

The landscape of conveyancing is changing and the pace of change is certain to speed up over the next 10 years.  The Law Commission, Land Registry and current Government all support the development of e-conveyancing believing that the conveyancing process needs to speed up dramatically.  Suffice it to say that one of the main provisions of the 2002 Act was to guide in e-conveyancing within the near future.  The legislation creates the appropriate legal framework that allows for conveyancing to be conducted electronically although in practice, notwithstanding the intentions of the legislation, e-conveyancing is not yet in place. 

The idea of e-conveyancing is to provide an electronic system of dealing with land, that is to create the register that should be a complete and accurate reflection of the state of the title in the land at any given time so that it is possible for conveyancing solicitors and the public alike to investigate title of land online with the absolute minimum of additional conveyancing enquiries and conveyancing inspections.  This was of course predicated on a system of electronic dealings making possible online title and conveyancing investigation.  However, the Land Registry have unfortunately been unable to implement the changes at the speed originally envisaged. With the current economic climate working against conveyancing firms it is unlikely that the government will push forward e-conveyancing in the near future.

It was originally intended that e-conveyancing was to be introduced in stages with the endgame being that the Lord Chancellor would exercise a power to make e-conveyancing compulsory.  Unfortunately these first stages have not yet taken place even though they would have been anticipated to have taken place in the last couple of years.  Unfortunately, paper-based conveyancing continues to exist although there is nothing to preclude or prohibit conveyancing solicitors from speeding up their communication by way of email, conveyancing case tracking  and utilising various web based conveyancing services.

One particular issue with the 2002 Act is that the e-conveyancing proposals failed to accommodate auction contracts.  Changes will need to cover auction sales.  It is also worth bearing in mind that the Government did not introduce any compulsory requirement for Home Information Packs or Property Information Questionnaires to be made available online or indeed in an electronic format.  That being said, most Home Information Packs are provided as, or conveyancing lawyers that produce Home Information Packs do ensure that the Home Information Packs and PIQs are available mainly in a PDF or digital format.