Land Registration Act 2002

We have previously promised to comment on this Act which received Royal Assent on 26 February 2002. The Lord Chancellors Department advises that its provisions will not come into effect for 12-18 months. Meanwhile, new Land Registration Rules will have to be drafted. Some important changes are &Mac183; Compulsory registration of leases that have more than 7 years left to run from the date of grant. This is a radical change and imposes yet more red tape on lease grants and assignment without any obvious benefit.

• Subject to exceptions to be specified in the rules the register and all documents referred to on it are public and open to inspection by anyone. Note that this means (unless the rules say otherwise) that leases of 7 years plus will be in the public domain. This may well have a big impact on future lease negotiation

• A new provision that the registrar may record in the register that a right to determine the registered estate has arisen (Rules governing the making and removal of the entry yet to be made).

• Provisions requiring that registrable transactions are effected electronically at both contract and completion stages. Details are still to be worked out. Uniform requirements for the making of electronic documents are set out. The document must specify the time and date it takes effect; it must have the electronic signature of each person who must authenticate the document. As the explanatory notes for the bill say, "electronic conveyancing enables the gap between the conveyance and registration to be eliminated". Once executed changes can be made to the register entries. Although electronic or e-conveyancing and the current system will initially operate side by side clearly a two tier system would mean the benefits of e-conveyancing would not be huge – hence the ability to make it compulsory.