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Ignoring the anonymous posters, and the obvious fraud (and does any third party company system bring to the table any guarantee that there is no ID risk) argument, I appreciate any article is free publicity, and very few members of the general public read these articles/posts, but the article does scream one question...why on earth was the sale contract not signed weeks before exchange (don't we all get signed up way way in advance on a sale) and likewise a week or more before it is needed on a purchase, probably longer if the mortgage is the last thing to come in.

I have never come remotely close to having an unsigned contract delay an exchange, but I know other firms have, as they leave things to the last minute.

So if the 'last minute' brigade are helped by what this article describes, fine, but the quality of their service might need to be looked at as a whole.

In terms of e-conveyancing in general, it's a total red herring. The focus needs to be on the poor quality of the human beings so frequently offering conveyancing at the moment. GIve them bells and whistles IT, and you still have a poor quality conveyancer, now with bells and whistles IT.

e.g ever had a legal contract pack despatched by email?

I find with no exception whatsoever, the quality is worse than hardcopy. I fear the seller's lawyer has probably already annoyed their own client by making them sit in front of a pc to fill in forms, to upload/scan/save back. Then the lawyer doesn't bother to read what their client has sent back or check anything the client has uploaded. All they seem to do is throw it out to the buyer's lawyer to sort out in a 15 pdf email.

Now imagine that same pdf despatching conveyancer acting for a buyer and facing themselves a 15 pdf attachment email. Impressive conveyancers will spread all the documents out in front of them and cross refer everything and spot errors. A thorough job. Do you think that lawyer will do the same with a 15 pdf email........if they print it out, then all that has happened is the selling lawyer has added even more work and expense onto the buyer's lawyer who has the far greater role anyway.

It's a circle of poor conveyancing.

If you push e-conveyancing - conveniently ignoring the fact we already have instant IT...email - rather than improving the quality of the conveyancer's individual legal and procedural knowledge, then shortcuts and glossing over will inevitably happen..... at the public's expense.

P.s 'luddite' comments......they simply camouflage the dumbing down of conveyancing to sell pointless software/serve the volume/conveyor belt market. I'd jump on e-conveyancing in a flash if I felt it would serve any useful purpose. But it is scary times with online fraud, so now is not remotely the time to encourage it. Yet it is easy to introduce, my firm certainly has the budget, but I demand for my clients a far far better service.