Stratford upon Avon District Council has completed its migration to the HM Land Registry’s (HMLR) local land charges (LLC) online register, marking a major step forward for the residential property sector’s digital-first strategy for professional advisers, conveyancers and solicitors in the West Midlands.
The latest in the rollout of the HM Land Registry’s Digital Local Land Charges Register, Stratford’s move will ‘revolutionise’ the work and time-efficiencies of land searches for the region’s property sector, according to Kate Bould, the managing director of bespoke property search firm Index West Midlands:
“This is significant for the sector’s digital strategy in the region,”
says Kate, who has worked closely with HM Land Registry and Stratford District Council to support the move from the paper-based to fully online system.
“The HM Land Registry Local Land Charges Register will eliminate local variations in price, speed and format to create a standardised and streamlined service.
“It delivers instant online search results with 24/7 access to the data that will reduce delays to conveyancers and solicitors receiving searches.
Under the programme that originally launched in 2018, HM Land Registry is centralising all local land charges registers held by local authorities across England and Wales, into one single digital register.
The migration for Stratford upon Avon district council completed on 10th May, and is the first in HM Land Registry’s second phase of the rollout programme that is scheduled for this year, and the second local authority in the West Midlands region to complete the switch since HMLR launched the programme – Warwick District Council was one of the first local authorities to migrate to register.
“The programme’s next phase of rollout is a significant milestone for not only Stratford upon Avon, but the region too,”
comments Kate.
“The West Midlands is at the heart of the digital system’s migration, with further local authorities in the West Midlands migrating their service in this financial year, with Bromsgrove and Redditch scheduled to join this financial year
“The Index West Midlands team works closely with all local authorities in the West Midlands, and in the same way as we have supported Stratford upon Avon to move to the HMLR register, is now poised to support their scheduled switch to the digital-first system.”
She adds:
“Stratford-on-Avon District Council’s investment in its migration to the fully digital search system will address overnight the many historic issues associated with residential house purchasers in the area, such as variations in price, speed and format, and create a standardised and streamlined service.”
Customers in the Stratford upon Avon District Council geographic area can now benefit from:
- guaranteed search results that provide the highest level of due diligence;
- the full spatial extent of every charge appears on the search result;
- standardized fee for each search, providing a reduction to the current national average price;
- consistent quality of data which provides clear and accurate search results;
- instant online search results with 24/7 access to the data, reducing delays in receiving searches;
- unlimited repeat searches for six months to check for any new land charges before completing a transaction.
Kate adds:
“This is a defining moment for the West Midlands’ property sector professional communities of conveyancers, mortgage advisers, commercial and residential property lawyers, real estate and agriculture lawyers,”.
