The first electronically signed deed has been submitted for a house sale, in a historic moment for lawyers
The landmark event took place this week, days after the Land Registry approved the use of e-signatures for transfer documents from 27 July onwards.
The client e-signed the transfer form on their mobile phone, followed by a witness signing on their phone, and the registration was submitted to the Land Registry and accepted a few minutes later. The lawyers were The Partnership and the SignIT technology was provided by InfoTrack. Normally, the same process takes up to a week to complete when clients manually sign paperwork.
Peter Ambrose, managing director at The Partnership, said: ‘The security levels provided through both text and email confirmation and electronic signing gives me particular confidence. The technology acts as a witness and the certificates issued upon signing demonstrate a security you just don’t get with wet signatures.’
