Land Registry Practice Guide 8 amended to further clarify electronic signature requirements and include example form of conveyancer’s certificate

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The Land Registry (LR) has further amended section 13 of Land Registry Practice Guide 8: Execution of deeds (LRPG 8).

In July 2020, the LR added section 13 to clarify that it would accept transfers and other deeds that had been signed electronically, provided that certain requirements (in section 13.3) were met.

The LR has further amended Land Registry Practice Guide 8 to clarify that the requirements need only be satisfied when lodging a deed to register a registrable disposition, or for the first registration of title. LRPG 8 gives the example that a notice can be entered for a pre-emption agreement in a deed, or for a deed of variation of a restrictive covenant, where the deed is signed electronically but not in accordance with the LR requirements.

Section 13.3 requires that conveyancers must be acting for both parties. The LR has confirmed that, in the following cases, only the following parties need to have a conveyancer acting for them:

The lender, in the case of a discharge or release.
The personal representatives, in the case of an assent.
The donor, in the case of a power of attorney.

The notes to the latest update (7 September 2020) state that “this relaxation applies even where the deed was signed before this latest update”.

Where an attorney is electronically signing a deed (other than the power of attorney itself), a conveyancer must be acting. In this case, for the purpose of the LR requirements, the conveyancer may be instructed by the donor or the attorney.

Section 13.3 requires the conveyancer lodging the application to certify that the LR requirements for electronic deed signatures have been satisfied. A new Appendix 3 has been added to LRPG 8 with an example of an acceptable form of conveyancer’s certificate.

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