‘Blockchain deal bodes ill for conveyancers’, the Gazette reported on 16 October. At their own risk, parties can always bypass solicitors and, for example, prepare their own transfer deed, so it is surprising the Gazette devotes space to this. 

Neil Singer seems not to understand the purpose of land registration in suggesting his procedure could render the Registry redundant (there is, of course, the little matter of identity checks as well). He seems to think that half our work is just checking that the seller owns the property, although that takes less than a minute normally. So presumably he thinks investigating title and advising the client, raising additional enquiries and so forth takes no longer than that.  

Of course, his argument is unanswerable because his digital file is ‘irrefutable’. Readers may be interested to know that it has taken me less than five minutes to work this out. I am not a robot.

Richard Ablitt, Ablitts Solicitors, London SE26

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