Law Weblog

E-Transactions Have Arrived

Saturday 16 May 2009 at 12:11 pm | In News | 1 Comment The first mortgage to be signed electronically has been registered by the Land Registry.

The signing of deeds electronically speeds up the transaction and the registration of the charge.  The requirement to sign the mortgage on paper was the last hurdle before moving to an entirely e-based paper-free system of mortgaging; pen and paper have been removed from the process.

E-signature does not use witnesses, which perhaps makes the process more vulnerable to fraud.  The Land Registry has taken steps to create a secure environment using an unique pin number to a unique document and a unique signature number usable only by the registered user to which it applies and for the particular legal charge created.

It is difficult to see how any system could protect against the fraud of identity theft which is afraud that goes well beyond the signing process itself.

Land registry details here