Chink in the Chain


Following your article on the electronic property chain system (see [2007] Gazette, 13 April, 4), I raise the following issues as food for thought:



l Would not the ultimate implementation of e-conveyancing enable the government to 'turn off' the residential property transfer system for political or other reasons, since practitioners would be compelled via access agreements to participate in an system ultimately controlled by an organ of the state?

l Is it really acceptable that the fine details of an individual's principal asset should be made available to the state and the general public?

l Is not the chain matrix a smoke screen for the government's commoditisation of the residential property law system?

I view the final chapter of e-conveyancing with trepidation, and not with the delight apparently felt by the practitioners in your article.



Stephen Larcombe, Limbach Banham, Royston, Herts