Konmac/Shutterstock.com We receive a lot of applications that refer to discounts and incentives, but there can be confusion over which is which. This is important because it affects the entry we will make in the Land Register and our house price data, so if an application is incorrect or unclear, we will have to raise a requisition to request more information.  Last year (1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024), we sent 2,035 requisitions over discounts and incentives, 806 of these in the first three months of 2024 alone, so I’d like to help you avoid such delays by explaining exactly what we ar ..read more

Launching any new publication is an anxious time for everyone involved. Have we got the format right, will the material be ready – and will anyone read it? These questions were in all of our minds in the build-up to the launch of Practice and Process in March last year. We were confident our professional customers needed and wanted a regular summary of our practice guide updates, process changes and training initiatives. We’d done our research and user testing to define the content and presentation. But still, how many people would make the effort and commitment to subscribe to another email ..read more

Gajus/Shutterstock.com At HM Land Registry we find that applicants sometimes mistakenly refer to amalgamation when the application is actually for a merger. This distinction is important, because HM Land Registry uses certain criteria to decide whether or not we should process an application for amalgamation, but we would normally complete a merger.  Amalgamation An amalgamation joins two or more parcels of registered and/or unregistered estates affecting different extents of land under a single registered title.  For amalgamation to proceed, it must be both possible and beneficial ..read more

Reflecting on last week’s second National Conveyancing Week (NCW), we want to take this valuable opportunity to catch up with and pay tribute to conveyancers. Considerable challenges persist within the property sector. We recognise the increased demands and pressures on the valuable service you provide and we fully support the critical role you continue to play in every property transaction. The conveyancing profession underpins the property market and we are exploring new ways to assist you in the vital work you do. While reducing the backlog remains our number one priority, we are introduci ..read more

We recently recorded a podcast with Hugh Gibbs, co-founder of Searchland.  Listen to the podcast with Searchland. Searchland took part in the Geovation Accelerator Programme in 2021. The programme is co-sponsored by HM Land Registry and Ordnance Survey and supports start-ups in the geospatial and property sectors. Searchland is a PropTech (property technology) company that uses various datasets, including those from HM Land Registry, to provide a business-to-business platform for property developers, architects, planners, agents and others. Searchland’s platform enables users to access ..read more

Last year, we launched the Specialist Services Hub, which brought our five specialist services together in one place, including Ask for Guidance.  Roughly 65% of complex cases receive requisitions. This is because some points are hard to anticipate in advance and we are keen to work directly with customers to ensure everything is in place before we receive the application.  This service provides expert guidance on complex cases, help to navigate through the registry processes and support in avoiding unnecessary errors before lodging an application.   But customers often as ..read more

This year, we are launching Caseworkers’ Top 10 tips for tip-top applications - quick checks or changes you can make that could more than halve the number of requisitions you receive. In 2023, we raised 986,036 requisitions, 70% of which (695,380) boiled down to around 30 specific points. None involved a certificate or consent, but collectively they took us – and more importantly you, our customers – a huge amount of time and money to resolve. Our caseworkers have put together 10 top tips to address some of the most common requisitions – simple points that punch above their weight in terms of ..read more

Lidiia/Shutterstock.com As mentioned in our recent blogs, about what we’re doing to reduce our processing times and our plans for the future, we are exploring every avenue to improve our services to customers. This includes automating our services for updating registered titles, which makes up the majority of the work handled by our caseworkers. To automate our services, we need to adjust how we receive and process applications. At the moment, our caseworkers check every application for errors or omissions before starting work on them. They often need to send out requests for information (re ..read more

This week sees the return of International Fraud Awareness Week, launched in 2000 by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, when hundreds of organisations across the world come together to raise awareness and encourage people to guard against fraud.  Fraud costs the UK nearly £7 billion a year, accounting for more than 40% of crime, so earlier this year the Government launched a new Fraud Strategy, introducing a range of measures aimed at driving this figure down.    At HM Land Registry we work hard to combat property fraud, which happens when criminals target the m ..read more

Listen to an audio version of this blog (4 minutes 54 seconds). Property technology (PropTech) provider adoor joined the Geovation Accelerator Programme in October 2020 – a programme backed by HM Land Registry and Ordnance Survey which provides geospatial and PropTech start-ups with grant funding and 12 months of support.  Why we set up adoor Currently, transactions take over 151 days on average to complete and nearly half of transactions fell through in the first quarter of 2023. Conveyancers and estate agents are battling higher caseloads, with more enquiries, meaning they have less ..read more