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As a conveyancing solicitor I have been trying to persuade my colleagues (unsuccessfully) into the merits of a Land Certificate. Like most, they want to bill bill bill and get things through 'yesterday, not tomorrow'.
But if we had a certificate, one can be issued to lender's to prove the charge, and one to the owner to prove ownership. A solicitor may keep hold of the buyer's copy in a fire proof cabinet, like they do with Wills. When the owner comes to sell, they must produce this certificate. If it gets lost, then you can go *in person* to the Land Registry to have one re-issued. They can then make the appropriate checks and only re-issue it if they are satisfied.
Would this slow down the process? Yes it would. But the average house price is £230,000. Why the need to make the most important and biggest purchase of your life needs to be quite so quick I do not know.
No doubt this will be seen as old fashioned, and a throwback to older times, but this is a very real problem and we cannot continue to rely on just suing each other to sort it all out.
Fraudsters are very elaborate (I know of someone who rented a property, changed their name by deed poll to the owner, so had a passport, driving licence and all bills etc in the owners name and sold it. What else can the solicitor do? Ask for dental records?)