First digital mortgage deed signed for house in Rotherhithe London

The first digitally-signed mortgage deed has been successfully entered into the national database, for a house in London.

HM Land Registry said today that it was part of a process to improve the use of technology in transactions making them “instantaneous where possible”.

Instead of requiring the homeowner to sign a pen-and-paper contract in the presence of witnesses, the new form of registration confirms users’ identities through GOV.UK Verify, the government’s service to verify who you are online.

The Land Registry worked with Coventry Building Society and Enact Conveyancing to test the new method.

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“By working with partners in the industry, we have secured a simpler and faster service for the benefit of home owners,” said Land Registry chief executive Graham Farrant. “We are looking forward to rolling this out nationally and will be working with more conveyancers and lenders to do so.”

The first contract was digitally signed to re-mortgage a house in Rotherhithe, south west London.

Peter Frost, chief operating officer at Coventry Building Society said: “Although this initiative has started with re-mortgages we’re excited about the potential for it to be extended to purchases in the future.”

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