The Land Registry has backed electronic signatures within digital documents, and is urging all conveyancers to embrace the technology in a move that it says will lead to faster transactions.

Many conveyancers still use paper to process the various aspects of moving from exchange to completion, and the finalisation of ownership documents after that via the Land Registry.

The main benefit of using Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) is that those buying and selling homes and their conveyancers will no longer need to seek a witness to signatures for Land Registry documents, which can be a time consuming process.

Now that QES is officially backed by the Land Registry, many within the property industry are now hoping this will speed up the adoption of this technology across the whole conveyancing process, and help speed it up significantly.

Describing it as ‘long established’, the Land Registry says QES offers ‘flexibility and simplicity’ as well as greater security for all those involved in a property transaction.

Property market

It says conveyancers are now being invited to start submitting applications including documents signed using a QES tool, saying it is keen to support interested lawyers, their clients and lenders, as the property market looks towards the new signature technology for the benefits it offers them and their clients.

“We are excited to enable our customers the option to use QES in their land registration applications,” says Andy Roddy, its Deputy Director of Digital Services.=

“This marks another major step forward in our ongoing digital transformation.”

Stephen Ward, Director of Strategy and External Relations at the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, says “This is a very welcome step by HM Land Registry that helps to make a fully digital conveyancing process easier to achieve, with all the improvements to confidence and speed that will bring.”

Read more about electronic signatures.