The recent Land Registry and stamp duty land tax (SDLT) changes recognise a thrust towards paperless e-conveyancing.
Does it work in practice? Several recent examples show it does not, namely:
l On three separate occasions I have asked the Land Registry for copy documents referred to on the charges register.
In each case, either incomplete documents have been sent to me (for example, without coloured plans) or alternatively the registry has sheepishly explained that it does not hold copies of the documents.
When asked how we are to advise our clients of rights benefiting/burdening titles, the reaction has been 'this is not our problem'.
l I recently had an application for first registration of an assignment of a 1998 lease rejected without even the courtesy of a telephone call.
The basis suggested was that the 1998 lease did not contain a sufficient scaled lease plan with north point to satisfy the (later) 2003 registration requirements.
Again, when I explained that we could not retrospectively amend a 1998 lease, the reaction was 'that is not our fault'.
Practitioners are being asked to work with impractical Land Registry and Inland Revenue regulations.
When the government moans that legal practitioners are slowing down transactions, perhaps it may like to look at its own legislation and administration of the Land Registry/SDLT rules by its own departments before casting criticism.
Garry Treagust, partner, Trethowans, Salisbury
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