Land Registry relaxes paperwork rules for purchases in response to Covid-19

From today (4 May), it will accept electronic versions of deeds, although documents will still need to be signed before being scanned and sent, a common approach in other industries.

Andrew Groocock, Knight Frank regional partner for the City and East London, said a potential stumbling block in the sales process had been removed. 

“Hopefully it will be the first of many changes to the buying and selling process that will begin to move transactions into the modern age by taking advantage of developments in IT,” he said.

The change will have a potentially bigger impact on sales where the buyer is based outside the UK as it will speed up a process that can otherwise take several days or weeks. From today, the physical location of any document becomes irrelevant.

Christopher Dewe, from Knight Frank’s Country department, also welcomed the move and urged the government to make it a permanent change once government restrictions are relaxed. “Anything that helps tackle the current logjam and puts us in a position to exchange or complete deals as we come out of lockdown is hugely positive.”

The Land Registry has also loosened the rules around identity checks, expanding the list of who can carry them out and enabling the process to take place via video.

For the full details see below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/execution-of-deeds/practice-guide-8-execution-of-deeds