As much as the electronic revolution is affecting companies' real estate requirements through e-retailing and remote working, it is also influencing the transactional basis of real estate.The government is currently finalising plans for Internet conveyancing with the Land Registration Bill, expected to receive Royal Assent in early 2002.

The impetus behind the largest reform of English and Welsh property law since 1925 is the desire to speed up conveyancing.

The successful implementation of the legislation is anticipated to enable property transactions to become 'paperless'.Notably, the draft legislation introduces a system whereby electronic transfers and charges can be electronically executed and directly transmitted to the Land Registry on completion, thus enabling simultaneous completion and registration of change of ownership, so ending the 'registration gap'.

Whether this will substantially reduce the actual conveyancing costs is, however, unlikely.Currently, dispositions of land must be made by deed by virtue of section 2, Law of Property Act 1989.

However, the Bill provides that an electronic transfer will be treated as if it were a deed so long as it carries properly certified electronic signatures.

This extends the powers of the Electronic Communications Act 2000, which permits electronic signatures to be used in evidence in relation to authenticity and integrity of electronic data.Whether electronic signatures satisfy the legal requirements for documents to be 'signed' are still to be resolved.

It is likely that lawyers will 'sign' documents on behalf of their clients, as it is not expected that many private clients will have their own e-signatures.The adoption of technology has increased the availability of information.

Businesses can use the Internet to provide better information and improve their service delivery with copy documents being provided in seconds.The property world is no exception; mechanisms for solicitors to obtain the requisite property search information are also making their way on to the Internet with services such as the National Land Information Service.

The speed of property transactions is improved by being able to simply log on to the appropriate Web site and entering a unique property number, thereby allowing all searches to be centrally co-ordinated and the results transmitted electronically to the firm.With prototype systems suggesting that the optimum timescale for receipt of results is four hours, using the Internet to complete such searches can only reduce time and costs for clients.Together with other developments, such as the introduction of real time priority on applications lodged at the Land Registry, the use of on-line auctions and virtual deal rooms, technology is changing the way property transactions are dealt with.

Described by the Lord Chancellor as a 'thoroughgoing modernisation .

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in conveyancing services', new legislative reforms and technology systems are bringing the implementation of property deals into the 21st century.