Licensed property solicitors have completed a property transaction with HM Land Registry for the first time using an electronic signature rather than traditional hand signatures, drastically increasing completion times.
The system, which used a qualified electronic signature system powered by DocuSign, allowed for the transfer of a title to be completed in just 24 hours, rather than the typical completion time of up to eight weeks.
The transaction was between a conveyancing firm and HM Land Registry to transfer a property title, allowing the legal team to see how the digital signature system worked in practice from a customer’s point of view, and whether it could be appropriately applied to mortgage documents, business contracts and property arrangements.
This arrangement came after the results of a working group exploring the potential use of digital signatures in property found that they can be “at least as secure” as documents signed with a witness physically present, with an audit trail that in some cases makes it more reliable.
The particular electronic signature system used here, the QES, is based on public key infrastructure encryption. These take various forms, but one digital certificate they allow for is a system that only issues permission after a face to face identity verification process to prove the signee is who they say they are.
In practice, they serve the same purpose as a witness but the witnessing part of the process can be undertaken at a time or in a more convenient way.
This is the culmination of several years of legal precedents regarding electronic signatures. The most prominent of these was the announcement by the Law Commission that in most cases an electronic signature is legally valid, even when related to laws that pre-date the internet.
This further step and its practical application could transform the property world and fundamentally speed up the conveyancing process.