Mortgage pilot delay

LAND REGISTRY: lenders effect discharge automatically

A pilot project allowing mortgage lenders directly to carry out the electronic discharge of mortgages on the Land Registry's records is set to be up and running by the middle of 2003 - almost a year after it should have started.

Lenders can currently notify the Land Registry about discharges through a type of e-mail system, but the aim was to streamline the process by enabling them to alter records themselves in a pilot scheme this summer.

However, this was hindered by technical problems and the project will now be delayed until May or June next year.

Andrew Hopkins, legal adviser at the Council of Mortgage Lenders, said lenders had been in talks with the Land Registry over which IT system would be best suited to the job.

'They have been in talks about a system which adheres to all their requirements,' he said.

'Now they have pretty much agreed it and it is all going well.'

Denis Cameron, chairman of the Law Society's land law and conveyancing committee, said he was disappointed with the delay to the project, but added that the current focus was on streamlining the electronic notification of discharge process.

Speaking after a meeting with representatives from the Land Registry and 20 of the biggest lenders, Mr Cameron said there was a consensus that the process would run more smoothly if solicitors provided lenders with all the information they needed to discharge mortgages, while lenders should cut down on the number of mistakes they made and keep solicitors informed.

'We all accepted that there was no one area where someone should take full blame,' he said.

Meanwhile, the committee is set to seek the profession's views on the standard conditions of sale; Mr Cameron said this was likely to happen early next year.

Moves are also being made to set up a working group to look into ways of easing transfers of funds.

The Land Registry is investigating this as well as part of its e-conveyancing project.

Paula Rohan