The Government has invested the sum of £1.5 million in
developing a new system of on-line conveyancing for England and
Wales. It hopes that the current system for buying and selling a
property in these countries will be overhauled – but gives a time
scale for doing so of between five and ten years. The property
registration requirements will also be simplified.
The system aims to:
- reduce the time taken between "handshake" and "exchange of
contracts";
- reduce transaction costs to conveyancers and therefore to
citizens;
- remove some of the anxiety and uncertainty experienced by
citizens engaged in land and property transactions; and
- link the conveyancing and registration processes more closely
by removing, in most cases, the "registration gap", the period
between completion of the transaction and registration of the new
owner.
Peter Collis, Chief Land Registrar and Chief Executive at the
Land Registry, said:
"This is excellent news for the Land
Registry and for all the other participants in this exciting
project. By abolishing paper, and conducting conveyancing on-line,
this programme of work aims to make a real improvement to the way
that property is bought and sold."
