E-conveyancing revolution gathers momentum

Solicitors must accept that paperless conveyancing is inevitable, or risk being left behind, the new chairman of the Law Society's land law and conveyancing committee has warned.

Denis Cameron, partner at Blackpool firm Cameron & Ball, issued his forecast amid concern from practitioners that mortgage lenders have ceased storing documents such as planning consents and defective title insurance.

One solicitor, Tim Napier, a partner at Warrington-based Albinson Napier & Co, wrote to the Land Registry after he received a circular from the Nationwide Building Society telling practitioners that it would stop the practice.

Several other lenders have made the same decision in a move towards a paperless system.

Mr Napier requested that the registry take over the storage of the documents because giving homeowners paperwork often saw important documents lost or destroyed over time.

The other option - leaving papers in the care of solicitors - also backfired because people often could not remember which firm they used previously.

'This means that all these documents will have to be replaced on the next sale or mortgage, with considerable delay and expense,' he complained.

The Land Registry admitted that Mr Napier's was not the first letter it had received on the issue.

However, the registry's legal services director Joe Timothy said there were no plans to extend its storage facilities, adding that he did not believe the average landowner could not be trusted to keep documents safe.

Mr Cameron, who took over his role from Michael King earlier this month, advised firms to obviate problems associated with keeping ancillary documents by staying in touch with clients.

'Remind them that you have the documents and who knows, you might get more work in 10 or 15 years' time,' he said.

And Mr Cameron called on firms of all sizes to stop getting bogged down in the details and realise that e-conveyancing would be making in-roads as early as spring 2003.

'It is coming, it is the future, and people are just going to have to come to terms with it,' he said.

'People need to realise that this is not something to fear and that it has its advantages.'

Paula Rohan